It would be a mistake to assume that, just because she holds an outstanding World record, Paula Radcliffe will automatically win the Marathon gold medal at the Athens Olympic Games. For the 30-year-old Briton, three times the IAAF World Half-Marathon champion, will also have the course to contend with.
The classic, original Marathon course, starting near the site of the ancient battle of Marathon and finishing at the original 1896 Olympic stadium, has demanding limbs from the start through to the 35km mark. And then there will be the heat - even with a 6pm local time start.
“It’s right that it should be a tough course,” Radcliffe says, visibly excited by the challenge that awaits her.
“But it's important for me not to see the Olympic marathon as different from any other race. It’s more important but it's just like any other marathon. I don't want to make it more complicated or build it into more than it is.”
And Radcliffe will be lining up against a collection of the world’s finest road runners, including the fastest in the world in 2004, Kenya’s Margaret Okayo, and her team mate, Catherine Ndereba, the holder of the world best until Radcliffe clocked 2:17:18 in Chicago, October 2002.
Then there are the Japanese, Reiko Tosa and Naoko Sakamoto, although the third-fastest woman of all-time, Naoko Takahashi, misses the Olympics. Deena Drossin-Kastor, the US record-holder, is another woman with a super-fast best time - 2:21:16 - and a cross-country pedigree, like Radcliffe, who is sure to figure prominently.
But the Marathon event has developed over the past 108 years into more than just a race. In the women's race in Athens, attention may equally focus on the back of the field as much as the front, since Aguida Amaral is returning to the Olympics representing East Timor.
The south-east island state is the world’s youngest country, having won its independence just two years ago, and is sending a team of just four to Athens.
Amaral ran in Sydney four years ago, competing then under the Olympic flag since the country was under UN protection. She finished 43rd in 3hr 10min. At 32, this is her chance to wear her national colours for the first time. “The people of East Timor are behind me with their prayers," she said before leaving the capital, Dili. "I believe I am not alone now."
SD
