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Jan-15-2008
It's Official - Radcliffe to Return to London
by David Monti
(c) Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
Any doubts that Paula Radcliffe might skip the spring marathon season were laid to rest today when Flora London Marathon race director, Dave Bedford, announced that the world record holder would try for her third London title on Sunday, April 13.
"We are delighted to have Paula back in London and pleased that she has decided to race here again against such a strong field," Bedford said through a media release.
Radcliffe, who turned 34 last month, previously won London in 2002, 2003 and 2005. Should she prevail again this year she would tie Norway's Ingrid Kristiansen with four titles, the most by any man or woman at London. Radcliffe set the absolute world record in a mixed-gender race in 2003 when she ran a jaw-dropping 2:15:25 with the aid of male pacers. She also set the world record for an all-women's race in London in 2002 in her marathon debut, clocking a solo 2:18:56. Radcliffe is coming off of a thrilling victory at the ING New York City Marathon last November where she won a pitched battle with Ethiopia's Gete Wami.
"It's great to be running the Flora London Marathon again," Radcliffe said in a prepared statement. "I love running in front of my home crowd and I know that winning a fourth time will give me just the boost I need before the Olympic Games in August."
In the 2004 Olympic Marathon in Athens, Radcliffe suffered her only defeat in eight career marathon starts, where she failed to finish. An Olympic
gold medal is the only key prize in athletics which hase eluded her, and she is determined to win the Olympic title in Beijing next August. She sees the race in London as supporting that goal.
"The London field is always competitive but that's what I need to be at my best in Beijing," she added.
Competitive indeed. The field features two of the top-3, and three of the top-10, athletes in the 2007 Race Results Weekly marathoner rankings.
Ratcliffe will face-off against #1-ranked Wami again, who was second at London last year, and her compatriot Berhane Adere, the two-time LaSalle
Bank Chicago Marathon champion. Romanian record holder Constantina Tomescu-Dita, third in London last year, hopes to bounce back from her DNF
at New York City last fall, while Australian record holder Benita Johnson will also be looking for redemption after finishing a disappointing fifth at the exceptionally hot marathon in Chicago last October.
"No doubt all eyes will be on Paula as she goes for her fourth victory, but the women's race will be as tough as ever and Gete will have something to prove after losing to Paula in New York," Bedford observed.
The Flora London Marathon is the first stop in 2008 of the World Marathon Majors (WMM) series. Wami, the 2006/2007 WMM champion, is on top of the
2007/2008 leaderboard with 55 points.
# # # # #
Here is the women's elite field so far, with career best times and their rank in the 2007 Race Results Weekly Marathoner Rankings. Last year's
London champion, Zhou Chunxiu of China who will battle Radcliffe for the Olympic title, was not announced by Bedford today:
Paula Radcliffe (GBR) 2:15:25 (#3)
Berhane Adere (ETH) 2:20:42
Constantina Tomescu-Dita (ROM) 2:21:30
Gete Wami (ETH) 2:21:34 (#1)
Svetlana Zakharova (RUS) 2:21:31
Benita Johnson (AUS) 2:22:36
Salina Kosgei (KEN) 2:23:22 (#8)
Irena Mikitenko (GER) 2:24:51
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