Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain on her way to winning gold in the women's marathon (© Getty Images)
Tyneside, UKAs comebacks go, Paula Radcliffe is playing it low key. The world Marathon record holder’s return to competitive action in Sunday’s BUPA Great North Run after 21 months out of the sport is merely a chance to “blow away the cobwebs”.
At least, that’s what she says. Everyone else will be looking for signs of Radcliffe’s recovery from injury, and monitoring the effects of her new status as a mother.
However much she plays it down, the 33-year-old will still be the headline act at the annual Newcastle to South Shields road race, billed as the biggest half marathon in the world, and her performance will inevitably be the focus of intense speculation.
As for Radcliffe, after a frustrating two years, the Great North Run was simply the right race at the right time.
“I chose a half because I wanted a good quality fast race to come back,” she says. “It is that time of the year and I have many happy memories of good races at the BUPA Great North Run, so it seemed a natural place to start back.”
The last time she ran here in 2003 Radcliffe was on top of the world. She’d shaken marathon running to its knees in London earlier that year with an astonishing record, the culmination of a 12-month period in which she’d become a European and Commonwealth champion on the track and the biggest star in the sport.
Already the fastest European thanks to her victory in 2000, Radcliffe won that year in 65 minutes, 40 seconds, still the course record and the fastest time ever run by a woman (although it’s not the official World record because the course is slightly downhill).
First race since New Year’s Eve 2005
Things are a little different this time. Apart from a ‘fun runner’s appearance’ at the Hyde Park 5km a year ago, Radcliffe hasn’t raced since 31 December 2005 when she won a 10km road race in Madrid. She missed the 2006 season with a combination of a foot injury and pregnancy, and most of 2007 with a stress fracture of the sacrum brought on by 27 hours of labour giving birth to daughter Isla in January.
While, of course, Isla is a joy, it’s been a long, hard road back. “The setbacks getting back since the birth have been very, very frustrating,” she says. “I stayed positive and did huge amounts of cross training while I was injured, but it was still very hard. I so missed racing and am really looking forward to competing again.”
“I had to be patient until my body recovered and I have been able to get a good base of running and decent training in. But I now feel that I am at that point and ready to come out and race well. I am really, really looking forward to it.”
Radcliffe wouldn’t be competing again if she wasn’t fully prepared and, despite her prolonged absence, will start on Sunday as the overwhelming favourite, especially now Jo Pavey has been forced to pull out with a groin injury.
Kalovics, Goucher lead the challenge
In the Briton’s absence, Radcliffe’s chief competition will come from the Hungarian Aniko Kalovics, ranked number one in Europe over the distance this year and winner of the Turin marathon, plus Kara Goucher, the American who denied Pavey a World Championships 10,000m bronze in Osaka this summer.
There’s also Adanech Zekiros, a 2:27:38 marathoner, who will hope to maintain Ethiopia’s grip on the race after victories by Berhane Adere and Derartu Tulu in the last two years, and Kenya’s Jane Muia could also be among the challengers.
Wanjiru headlines formidable men’s field
The men’s field also boasts the world’s fastest ever in Sammy Wanjiru, the 20-year-old Kenyan who has twice broken the World half marathon record this year.
Like Radcliffe, Wanjiru will start as favourite and could well have Zersenay Tadesse’s two-year-old course record of 59:05 in his sights. In February he eclipsed Haile Gebrselassie’s World record when he ran 58:53 to win in Ras Al Khaimah, and a month later he shaved another 20 seconds from that time in The Hague.
However, the Kenyan will have some tough competition on the north east England course, including all three medallists from last year’s race, plus Martin Lel, this year’s London Marathon winner.
There hasn’t been a Kenyan victory at this race since 2002, when Paul Kosgei triumphed, and both Wanjiru and Lel will be hoping to put that right. But the experienced South African, Hendrick Ramaala, the defending champion, is hungry for his fourth title10 years after winning his first Great North Run.
In addition, Dejene Berhanu of Ethiopia, champion here in 2005, will be aiming to improve on his second place last year, while USA’s Dathan Ritzenhein is looking to move up from third.
The British challenge will come from Jon Brown, the man who has twice finished fourth in Olympic marathons, and Dan Robinson, the Commonwealth Games marathon bronze medallist in 2006.
With some 50,000 entrants, the Great North Run is far more than just a couple of elite races, of course. In fact, the self-styled “festival of running” starts on Saturday with some high quality road races around the Newcastle-Gateshead quayside and the banks of the river Tyne.
Strong 3000m race starts the action on Saturday
The men’s 3000m, for example, features a re-run of last year’s close encounter between Australia’s Craig Mottram and Eliud Kipchoge when Mottram triumphed over the Kenyan in a world best 7:41.2. Britain’s Mo Farah, the Spaniard Jesus Espana and USA’s Adam Goucher join the battle this year.
Meselech Melkamu has stepped in at the last minute to head the women’s 3km field after her fellow Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba was forced to pull out with stomach problems. She will face Kenya’s Vivian Cheruiyot and Britain’s Helen Clitheroe.
Becky Lyne defends her title in the women’s mile race, against Commonwealth 1500m champion, Lisa Dobsriskey, and two other domestic rivals, Jemma Simpson and Jenny Meadows, while in the men’s mile Britain’s Andy Baddeley faces Spanish opposition from Sergio Martinez and Juan Carlos Higuero, plus Portugal’s Rui Silva.
Matthew Brown for the IAAF
