LONDON, 29 June 2004 — Paula Radcliffe has ruled out an attempt at the marathon and 10,000m double at the Athens Olympics in August.
Radcliffe, who stormed to victory in the 10,000m at Gateshead on Sunday in an impressive 30min 17.15sec, more than a minute under the Olympic qualifying mark, said it would be too much. “I am now qualified for both the marathon and 10K but it is impossible to do both,” she said.
The 30-year-old, who holds the world records for the 10km, 20km and marathon, ran the third fastest 5,000 meters in history in Poland a week ago. She will return to her training base in the French Pyrenees but will have another race either on the track or the roads before the Olympics.
Radcliffe caused a sensation by clocking 2:18:56 in her debut marathon in London in 2002 before running a world best 2:17:18 at Chicago six months later. She improved her mark at London last April with a time of 2:15:25.
She missed the world championships in Paris last August after struggling with a shin injury and bronchitis. Radcliffe won the 5,000 meters Commonwealth title in Manchester in 2002 when she also won the European 10,000m title in Munich. Radcliffe’s time in Munich of 30min 1.09sec was the second fastest in history, bettered only by Wang Junxia of China, who clocked 29:31.78 11 years ago in Beijing.
Radcliffe has been in the world spotlight for more than 10 years, starting with her outstanding victory over Wang Junxia to win the World Cross-Country Junior Championships in 1992.
But it is only in the last four years she has proved she can run and win from the front after a disappointing fifth at 5,000m at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and fourth at 10,000m at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
