LONDON, 13 August 2003 — World marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe will attempt a 5,000-10,000 double at this month’s Paris world championships in a bid to win her first global title.
The 29-year-old Briton, whose training has been interrupted by bronchitis and a leg injury, has yet to win an Olympic or world gold medal. Paris might represent her last chance on the track if she decides to concentrate on the marathon in next year’s Athens Olympics.
“I am pleased that my training has progressed to a level where I am able to be selected,” she said in a statement yesterday.
“My final couple of training sessions will tell me if I am at the level I want to be, and need to be, to do myself justice in Paris.
“As always my main focus will be the 10,000 meters and thoughts will only turn to the 5,000 meters afterward.”
Announcing the final British selections, UK Athletics performance director Max Jones said Radcliffe had enjoyed five weeks’ training at a high level.
“She is desperate to have a world title,” he told a news conference. “It was always her intention to double.”
Radcliffe, who seemed doomed to finish behind the fleet-footed Africans on the track, set the fastest time ever by a debutant in last year’s London Marathon.
She went on to break the mark in Chicago and reduced it further to two hours 15 minutes 25 seconds in London last April, three minutes faster than any other woman in history. Last year she translated her form on the roads to the track, breaking the European 10,000 meters record by more than 12 seconds in the rain at the Munich European championships and coming close to the world 5,000 mark at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
Olympic heptathlon champion Denise Lewis, who has not competed for three years and gave birth to her first child in April, has also been selected. Lewis reached the qualifying mark in Finland last month but looked well short of championship form when she finished last in the long jump at Sunday’s Berlin Golden League meeting.
“Denise is determined to compete although she was disappointed in Berlin,” Jones said. He added that Olympic and world triple jump champion Jonathan Edwards hoped to take part in the world championships starting on Aug. 23 despite spraining his right ankle in Friday’s London grand prix. “The sprain wasn’t as bad as we thought,” Jones said. “But he will have to be satisfied if he can be 100 percent fit on the day.” Edwards told the BBC he thought he had broken his foot but a scan had then revealed ruptured ligaments.
“At the time I thought there was definitely no Paris and I could not see myself, at 37, spending two to three months in rehabilitation, perhaps even having an operation and then come back for next year,” he said. “I thought this might be the end of my career, being stretchered off at Crystal Palace, it was quite emotional.”
