Paula Radcliffe breaks away from the field in the women's marathon (© Getty Images)
Madrid, SpainBritain's Paula Radcliffe won the San Silvestre Vallecana road race in Madrid despite a mid-race scare when a spectator accidentally sprayed a streamer into her mouth.
Despite the incident, the World marathon champion and record holder was an easy winner of the 10km ahead of Jelena Prokopcuka. At the beginning of November the Latvian had succeeded her as New York City Marathon champion, and she is also a polished 10,000m runner.
Despite the frenzied party atmosphere of the annual event which has 10,000 entrants, Radcliffe claimed victory around the tight course in an unofficial time of 31:16, to beat Prokopcuka by 35 seconds, with Marta Dominguez, the host nation's reigning European 5000 metres title holder, third in 33:22.
“A spectator stepped in front of me and sprayed something accidentally into my mouth,” said Radcliffe, who played down the incident and recovered almost immediately. “I'm okay and it is a great way to end 2005 - with a win.”
In the men's race, victory went to Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge in an unofficial time of 27:51.
Dave Martin - PA International - for the IAAF
