RADCLIFFE OUT OF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS MARATHON
By David Monti
(c) 2009 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - used with permission
BERLIN
(20-Aug) -- World marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe will not
attempt to win her second world marathon title here on Sunday, British
team officials announced this morning. The 35 year-old three-time ING
New York City Marathon winner has not recovered sufficiently from a
foot surgery she had last spring.
"I am devastated that I wasn't
able to be ready in time to represent Britain here in Berlin,
especially having got so close in such a short time frame," Radcliffe
said through a statement. "However, after having the surgery to
successfully put the years of injury behind me it is very important to
me that I come back to racing often and winning at 100% and continue
strongly and successfully through to London 2012."
Radcliffe won
last Sunday's NYC Half-Marathon in 1:09:45, just two seconds outside of
the event record. She used the race to test her foot which was still
visibly swollen after she competed. Although she competed well, the
test wasn't successful enough in her judgement.
"Running in New
York this weekend was a necessary part of the process to ascertain my
race fitness, and after speaking with my coaching and medical team, I
knew I was sadly just not quite ready."
Despite winning the
World Marathn Majors events in London and New York three times each,
Radcliffe has only won a single world or Olympic title. That came in
Helsinki in 2005 when she won the gold medal in spectacular fashion,
setting the championships record of 2:20:57, and winning by over a
minute. She failed to finish the Athens Olympic Marathon in 2004, and
limped to a 23rd place finish in Beijing last August, plagued by a leg
injury.
"To lose an athlete of Paula's caliber is disappointing
to say the least," commented U.K. Athletics head coach Charles van
Commenee. "She won the World Championships in 2005 and a fit Paula
would clearly be in contention to regain that title, but she has taken
that difficult decision and we have to respect that."
With the
withdrawals of both Radcliffe and Germany's Irina Mikitenko, a two-time
Virgin London Marathon winner, Sunday's marathon here has no clear
favorite. Strong teams have been entered by the Chinese, Japanese and
Ethiopians, and America's Kara Goucher, the 2007 10,000m bronze
medalist, must also be considered a contender.
ENDS
Read the BBC article about it below.