Posted: October 3, 2007

Athletics (RRW): Radcliffe Returning To ING New York City Marathon

From David Monti © 2007 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com On the heels of Haile Gebrselassie's world marathon record in Berlin last Sunday comes more big news from one of the world's top marathons: women's world record holder Paula Radcliffe will contest her first marathon in over two years at the ING New York City Marathon on Nov. 4. "We've got some good news," said race director Mary Wittenberg speaking on an international conference call from New York City today. She added: "We're so pleased to announce that Paula Radlciffe will return to the ING New York City Maraton this year," calling the 38th edition of the storied race from Staten Island to Manhattan "the best women's race we've ever had." The 33 year-old English star will be returning to the event where she enjoyed an emotional and closely fought victory in 2004 over Kenya's Susan Chepkemei. Some three months before she had failed to finish both the marathon and 10,000m at the Olympic Games, and New York became her redemption race. She and Chepkemei entered Central Park together for the final 800 meters and the Bedford athlete had to dig deep to win in the final sprint by a scant three seconds: 2:23:10 to 2:23:13. "I was pretty determined," Radcliffe told the New York Times after the 2004 contest. "I know Susan is a really strong athlete, but I've raced her for a long time and I was confident. I knew I had a lot left, so I was just holding myself together." Victory at this year's race is by no means assured, as Radcliffe will face a formidable field led by two-time defending champion, Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia; two-time world champion, Catherine Ndereba of Kenya; three-time Olympic medalist, Gete Wami of Ethiopia; last year's IAAF World Road Running Championships silver medalist, Constantina Tomescu-Dita of Romania; and reigning Boston Marathon champion, Lydiya Grigoryeva of Russia. She said today speaking via telephone from her training base in the French Pyrenees that it was the quality of the race which drew her back to New York, calling it a race "I can get my teeth into." "What I look for is a really competitive race, a really well-organized race," she said. "For me it really has to be a race to inspire me." She continued: "It's just something about the atmosphere in the city that I really love. It just seems to embrace the race." Radcliffe ran her first competitive event in 21 months last Sunday at the BUPA Great North Run in Newcastle, England. She ran an excellent 1:07:53, but finished second by nearly a minute to American Kara Goucher who made a sizzling debut at the half-marathon distance in 1:06:57. During her 21-month hiatus, Radcliffe had a foot surgery, and then became pregnant. She gave birth to daughter Isla (EYE-la) on January 17, 2007 and returned quickly to training, basing herself in Boulder, Colo. Unfortunately, she later discovered that she had sustained a stress fracture in her sacrum related to child birth, but this injury healed and she returned to full training in the summer. "The hard part was not getting back to racing, sooner," Radcliffe, who described herself as naturally competitive, said of her time away from competition. She continued: "To be honest when I got back to the Great North Run and to the race hotel, it didn't feel that I had been away from racing that long." In her most recent marathon, Radcliffe won the world title --her first-- in Helsinki in August, 2005. Employing her usual front-running style, she set a championship record of 2:20:57, finishing slightly more than a minute ahead of Ndereba. It was her sixth marathon victory in seven starts. She owns both the world record for mixed-gender marathons (2:15:25, London, 2003) and all-women's marathons (2:17:42, London, 2005). She has broken the 2:20 barrier three times, the only woman to do so (Ndereba has done it twice, and was the first to break 2:19). At the race in New York Radcliffe will be a factor in the race within the race: the 2006/2007 World Marathon Majors points chase. Wami (65 points) and Prokopcuka (55 points) are the only two female athletes who can win the grand prize of $500,000 which will be awarded one day after the ING New York City Marathon. Wami, who won last Sunday's real,- Berlin Marathon in 2:23:17, has the advantage of the ten point lead which means that Prokopcuka must finish at least third (10 points) to have a chance of winning the overall title. However, Wami will have the disadvantage of trying to contest her second high-level marathon in 35 days while her Latvian rival has put in a dedicated training program only to run New York. Radcliffe's presence in the race simply makes it harder for either athlete to score points: 25 for first, 15, 10, 5, 1). In any case, the winner of the ING New York City Marathon, the world's largest marathon with nearly 38,000 finishers last year, will receive $130,000 plus a Toyota Prius valued at $23,000, the largest winner's purse in the World Marathon Majors. Paula Radcliffe's Career Marathons (chronological order with current world records): 1st, London, 2002, 2:18:56 1st, Chicago, 2002, 2:17:18 1st, London, 2003, 2:15:25 WR DNF, Olympics, 2004 1st, New York, 2:23:10 1st, London, 2005, 2:17:42 WR/women only 1st, World Championships, 2005, 2:20:57 CR