30th September 2007

Radcliffe to Race In New York

4 October 2007

 

Paula Radcliffe has announced she will run the New York City marathon on 4 November, following her second place comeback at the Great North Run.

 

In her first race since New Year’s Eve of 2005, Paula Radcliffe (Bedford and County AC) went straight to the top of the UK women’s half marathon rankings for this year by clocking 67 minutes 53 seconds for second place in the BUPA Great North Run from Newcastle to South Shields on Sunday 30 September.

 

She was defeated by World 10,000m bronze medallist Kara Goucher, who lowered the USA record to 66:57, but expressed satisfaction with her long-awaited return since she gave birth to daughter Isla eight months ago.

 

Goucher ran the seventh mile in 4:57 and the eighth in 4:49 to establish a superiority that she extended to 250 metres by the finish line. Radcliffe, cheered to the echo for virtually every metre of the course, said she will now take time to decide her racing programme for the immediate future.

 

Of the UK athletes behind her, Hayley Yelling (Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow AC) shrugged off a summer of struggle to finish fifth in 72:14 to go seventh in this year’s Power of 10 national rankings. It signifies her appetite for racing has returned in time for her favourite time of year, the cross country season.

 

Susan Partridge (City of Glasgow AC) was sixth in a personal best of 72:33 as she heads for the Dublin Marathon at the end of next month. And Tracey Morris (Valley Striders) was happy with seventh place in 73:22 considering it is only four weeks since she ran the World Championships marathon in the exhausting heat of Osaka; she is still training for only an hour every other day.

 

The men’s race – won by Martin Lel (Kenya) in 60:10 – enabled Tomas Abyu (Salford Harriers) to take another step along his Olympic dream road. He lowered his PB to 62:50 in finishing fourth and will now race Dublin in search of the Beijing marathon qualifying time (the A standard is 2:11:00 and the B standard 2:15:00).

 

Ian Hudspith (Morpeth Harriers) was pleased with his time of 63:59 for 10th place as he prepares to spearhead his club’s efforts in the ERRA Six Stage Road Relay in Sutton Park on 20 October.

 

Dan Robinson (Stroud and District AC) was 12th in 64:39 in his first outing since the World Championships marathon – delighted that, while the sun shone and the temperature rose, there was plenty of fresh air beside the North Sea.

 

In the wheelchair races, Shelly Woods (50.36) was the top British performer and once again underlined her huge talent by cruising to victory ahead of Italian Francesca Porcellato in the women’s event.