Radcliffe with Chicago race clock (© Getty Images)
Paula Radcliffe's Marathon World best time is statistically the greatest women's running mark in the record book at all distances currently contested at senior international championship level.
The Hungarian Scoring Tables (2001), used by the International Association of Athletics Federations to assist in allocating prize money and World Rankings, award Radcliffe 1302 points for her time of 2hrs 17min 18sec in the Chicago Marathon.
These points equate to women's running times of 10.42sec for 100m and 20.96sec for 200m, superior to Florence Griffith-Joyner's World records of 10.49sec and 21.34sec.
Radcliffe's run is also accorded equivalence to 47.14sec for 400m. The 400m World record is 47.60sec by East Germany's Marita Koch, while reigning Olympic champion Cathy Freeman's best is 48.63sec and she ran 49.11sec for gold in Sydney.
Other scoring values (in brackets) and World record comparisons include:
800m (1min 51.89sec) WR 1:53.28, 1500m 3min 48.94sec) WR 3:50.46, 5000m (13min 58.14sec) WR 14:28.09, 10,000m (29min 26.10sec) WR 29:31.78, 100m hurdles (11.91sec) WR 12.21sec, 400m hurdles (50.81sec) WR 52.61sec.
By Mike Hurst (Daily and Sunday Telegraph, Australia) for the IAAF
