3 November 2008

Following her emphatic victory in Sunday’s ING New York Marathon, Paula Radcliffe is considering targeting the Boston and Berlin Marathons to complete the full set of major big city races. Radcliffe produced one of the finest performances of her career at the weekend, running away from a world-class field to win in 2:23:56.

It was her third victory in the big apple to go alongside her wins in 2004 and 2007 and provided some comfort at the end of this summer’s unfulfilled Olympic campaign which saw her finish 23^rd in Beijing suffering with a leg injury.

With three victories in the London Marathon, her thoughts post-race turned to the possibility of a “grand slam” of marathons. "I would really love to race in Boston," she said. "I guess my problem is that it’s always so close to London, and London has such a special place in my heart. But yeah, I really want to go to Boston, I really want to go to Berlin. I would like to sort of go to all the big five."

Sunday’s race saw her back to her imperious best, taking the lead right from the off and simply running the legs off the opposition. Second place was Russia’s Ludmila Petrova, a full 1 minute and 47 seconds behind Radcliffe (2:25:43), with marathon debutant Kara Goucher (USA) ten seconds further back.