Radcliffe on her way to European Cup victory in Poland (© Getty Images)
Paula Radcliffe returns to a British track for the first time for nearly two years on Sunday when she runs the 10,000m at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix at Gateshead’s International Stadium believing the home crowd will spur her on beyond the Olympic qualifying time of 31:45.00 and towards her personal best of 30:01.09.
“I believe I’m in PB shape,” said the 30 year-old Briton on Friday. “We’ll have to see how the conditions are but I’m in good shape from training. Athletics and running in general really are appreciated here and it¹s always great to run in front of a such a supportive crowd.”
“I’ve missed running in Britain on the track,” she said. “It wasn¹t through choice that I couldn’t do it last year and I know I’m going to get the support on Sunday.”
Radcliffe’s last track race in Britain was in 2002 when she won the Commonwealth Games 5000m final in Manchester recording a Commonwealth record of 14:31.42 in front of an ecstatic crowd. She followed that just over a week later by winning the European 10,000m title in pouring Munich rain, clocking that PB time, the second fastest in history.
Until the European Cup in Poland last weekend, however, that was Radcliffe’s last track race at any distance anywhere as a hip injury and bronchitis ruined her 2003 season and forced her to miss the World Championships in Paris. As the World record holder, Radcliffe’s place on the Olympic marathon starting line is virtually assured, but she is keen to claim a 10,000m spot in the Great Britain team too to keep her Athens options open.
“I want to enter both,” she confirmed.
After missing last season entirely she still needs to run the qualifying time and has picked Gateshead as the place to do it despite its reputation for unpredictable weather conditions. Few doubt that she will. After a hernia operation in March this year, which ruled her out of the world cross country championships and forced her to miss ten days of training, Radcliffe was back to her best last Sunday, solo running to a 14:29.11 clocking in Bydgoszcz, the third fastest ever 5000m.
“The injury’s gone completely,” she said. “We were lucky to find it and the operation went well. Last weekend¹s performance] was important, but it was a case of proving that what I knew from training would transfer to races because it doesn¹t always happen.”
Ever the perfectionist, however, Radcliffe was still critical of her performance last week. “I just felt a little bit flat in the middle of the race,” she said. “It was probably a little bit of over eagerness (at the start) because I just haven’t raced on the track for so long. Maybe I was a little too carried away in the first stages.
Radcliffe is likely to have another largely solo run on Sunday. Not that running alone worries her, and if a pb is the target then we could see only the second sub-30 minute clocking in history. Wang Junxia’s World record stands at 29:31.78.
“The opportunity to compete in front of a home crowd was more important than the opposition,” says Radcliffe. “I’m not the sort of athlete who needs to be under pressure from others to get the best out of myself. The pressure I put on myself is the biggest pressure there is.”
Nevertheless, Radcliffe is all too aware that she is far and away Britain’s main hope of a track and field gold medal in Athens, and as such will be under intense scrutiny between now and the Games. After two stunning London marathon victories in 2002 and 2003, the British public and media expect nothing less than the same when she sets off under the Greek sun.
While she has almost certainly made the Olympic marathon her first priority, Radcliffe has not ruled out the possibility of running both events in Athens. With only five days between the races the marathon coming first on Sunday 22 August it remains unlikely. “If I feel great (after the marathon) then I might,” she said, before adding with a laugh. “But it's not very likely that I will.”
Yet, after finishing an agonising fourth place in Sydney, leaving her “totally deflated” a feeling that’s “still there now,” she says Radcliffe admits that the motivation to succeed on the track has not disappeared. And with the elation of an Olympic marathon victory behind her, you can imagine this brave athlete giving it another shot.
