Top photo by Brian J. Myers: Brit Paula Radcliffe trained in New Mexico this winter and set a new women's 10K road world record in February

Photo above by Victah Sailer: American Deena Drossin trains in California with Team USA and led the American women to a bronze medal at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in March

Paula Radcliffe, running with the assistance of two male pacemakers, rewrote the record books yet again with a sensational world record in the Flora London Marathon of two hours 15 minutes and 24 seconds, knocking an astonishing one minute and 24 seconds off the time she set in the Chicago Marathon last October. The men's race was won by the Olympic and world champion Gezahegn Abera in two hours seven minutes and 56 seconds, outsprinting four other athletes over the last 400 metres.

Radcliffe's preparations as she attempted to defend her Flora London Marathon title had been anything but perfect, the runner dislocating her jaw after colliding with a cyclist during training at Albuquerque, Mexico, last month.

However, in only her third race over the distance, Radcliffe made her intentions clear from the start, latching on the two pacemakers designated to run at two hours 16 minutes pace. In fact, they started at a much faster tempo and Radcliffe's third mile, aided by the descent into Woolwich, was an electric 4 minutes 57 seconds. This must have been slightly worrying for Samson Loywapet, one of her pacemakers, who only had a personal best of two hours and 12 minutes himself.

"I was a bit conscious that the third mile was too fast and I tried to back off a little bit," said Radcliffe later, and over the fourth and fifth miles a lead of 20 seconds over the chasing athletes, lead by Romanian Contantina Dita, was briefly reduced to just 10 seconds. Any sense of a contest developing, though, soon faded as Radcliffe settled into a relentless rhythm.

With the Kenyan pacemakers Loywapet and Christopher Kandie running just ahead of her and to the side, Radcliffe rattled off mile after mile at an average pace of around five minutes and 14 seconds and pushed steadily further and further ahead.

The Bedford athlete passed the halfway mark in one hour eight minutes and two seconds, on schedule to break her own world record by well over a minute. The Romanian Constantina Dita posted an exceptional time of one hour nine minutes and 21 seconds at the same marker in second place, but did not now even have a sight of the extraordinary athlete ahead of her.

In the second half of the race, the Romanian soon started paying for her first-half efforts and began to fade. Radcliffe, by contrast, appeared to get stronger after crossing Tower Bridge and, with a succession of miles at around five minutes and 10 seconds, reached the 30km in a new world record of one hour 36 minutes and 39 seconds.

By the 19-mile mark, Kandie had resigned his pacemaking duties leaving only Loywapet to chaperone Radcliffe home. The 20-mile was reached in one hour 43 minutes and 34 seconds, another world record within a world record. Only at that point did Radcliffe take off the gloves she had been wearing from the start.

The Kenyan Catherine Ndereba continued to race with hat and gloves on, even though the dawn crispness had by now long left the air. Ndereba had sparked into life from the halfway mark, overtaking Dita and establishing second place as her own, but far from making any inroads on Radcliffe's lead, Ndereba continued to lose ground on the leader.

On a perfect day for marathon running, with temperatures at a lowly 10 celcius at the start, and rising just six degrees during the race. Radcliffe also had the assistance of a south-easterly breeze for much of the race.

However, she had to contend with a slight headwind at mile 25, but even so was still able to up the tempo as she turned into The Mall. With the crowd roaring her on, the 29-year-old sprinted across the finish line in a time of two hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds, exactly four and a half minutes (or almost a mile) ahead of Ndereba. "In the last five or six miles I was struggling a bit and my stomach was cramping," said Radcliffe, who nevertheless managed her third negative split is as many marathons.

Radcliffe has now established a world mark that is over three minutes faster than any other athlete, but she is still not prepared to commit herself to the Olympic marathon in Athens.

American runner Deena Drossin took third place in two hours 21 minutes and 16 seconds to set a new American record, breaking the record of Joan Benoit set in 1985, while three more athletes - Susan Chepkemei, Ludmila Petrova and Constantina Dita - ducked under two hours and 24 minutes.

The men's race was in marked contrast to the women's event, with a crocodile of athletes following the pacemaker Eliud Langat for much of the distance. Even as the race approached its closing stages, there were still half-a-dozen athletes in contention and though the Korean Lee Bong-Ju was dropped, five runners closed in on the finish line together.

Abera, Paul Tergat, Stefano Baldini, Joseph Ngolepus and Abdelkader Mouaziz were line abreast as they came up The Mall and it felt like an eternity before the sprint for the finish finally came. The Italian Baldini was the one to make a dash for the line, but his moment of glory was short-lived.

The 24-year-old Ethiopian Abera, the only runner ever to hold both world and Olympic titles simultaneously, had looked comfortable throughout the race, and shortened his stride to sprint easily past Baldini. They were both given the same time, of two hours seven minutes and 56 seconds, while the Kenyan Ngolepus was just a second back in third place. Tergat, who has finished second in the last two Flora London Marathons, again suffered for his lack of a sprint finish and was fourth.

Frenchman Joel Jeannot won the men's wheelchair race, finishing ahead of Britain's David Weir and setting a new course record of one hour 32 minutes and two seconds. The women's wheelchair event went to the Italian Francesca Porcellato, with second place going to the Welsh athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson.

Paula Radcliffe earned $55,000 for her first-place finish, and a $125,000 bonus for her world record; Deena Drossin takes home $22,500 for her third-place finish. Total prize money in the Flora London Marathon is $295,000.

Initial Results for the Flora London Marathon

Top 10 Women			
Place	Bib #	Name(Country)     	Time
1	101	P. Radcliffe (GBR)	2:15:25 WR
2	102	C. Ndereba (KEN)	2:19:55
3	113	D. Drossin (USA)	2:21:16
4	104	S. Chepkemei (KEN)	2:23:12
5	103	L. Petrova (RUS)	2:23:14
6	105	C. Dita (ROM)     	2:23:43
7	112	J. Prokocuka (LAT)	2:24:01
8	108	E. Alemu (ETH)    	2:24:56
9	116	M. Botezan (ROM)	2:25:32
10	106	D. Tulu (ETH)    	2:26:33


Top 10 Men			
Place	Bib #	Name(Country)     	Time
1	1	G. Abera (ETH)    	2:07:56
2	9	S. Baldini (ITA)	2:07:56
3	14	J. Ngolepus (KEN)	2:07:57
4	2	P. Tergat (KEN) 	2:07:59
5	17	S. Ramadhani (TAN)	2:08:01
6	6	A. El Mouaziz(MOR)	2:08:03
7	8	L. Bong-Ju (KOR)	2:08:10
8	18	H. Ramaala (RSA)	2:08:58
9	7	I. Syster (RSA) 	2:09:18
10	10	J. Corters (ESP)	2:10:39

Paula Radcliffe Well-Prepared for London
From the pre-race IAAF News Story by Bob Frank:
London - Paula Radcliffe arrived for today's London Marathon press conference displaying nasty cuts to both knees after an incident with a cyclist while training in Albuquerque last month.

The world's fastest ever female marathon runner has only just revealed the accident which occurred on March 8, six days after her world 10km best of 30:21 in Puerto Rico. She says: "This was more serious than last year and I was left covered in blood and with a dislocated jaw."

The accident happened shortly after Radcliffe had run past a young cyclist while training. She explains: "I had gone past her and she was out of my line of sight, but suddenly she clipped my back foot with her tyre.

"She had looked back to see where her parents were and ran into me. She was not even knocked off her bike but she was crying because I was covered in blood and had a dislocated jaw. I don't think they recognised me, I think they thought she had just knocked over someone out for a Sunday run and didn't realise they could potentially have put the world record-holder out of the London Marathon.

"I had bad cuts to my knees, shoulders, hands and face, and my neck was sore. I went for a run the next day but felt awful, so I took the next day off and went to see a chiropractor who worked on my neck. The following day was due to be a rest day anyway so I only had two days off but it was a worrying moment. I could not use the medicine ball for about a week and I couldn't eat an apple for two weeks because of my jaw, but I think I was more shocked than anything."

Radcliffe had planned to run the Mobile 10km until her accident but is happy to go into the marathon with just one race under her belt this year, and who knows her 2003 record after Sunday may read: two races, two world records.

She says: "When marathon training I don't feel the need to race much. I don't want to back off from training nor spend too much time travelling, so I am happy going into the marathon with just the Puerto Rico race under my belt. I would still have done the other race if it had been in Albuquerque but I think my body had had enough shock so didn't fancy travelling too far to race."

Radcliffe has kept her training pattern similar to last year, a schedule consisting of 140 miles per week including four main sessions - a track session, a grass session of perhaps 2km or one-mile reps, a tempo run ranging from 5-12 miles, and a long run which is between 20 and 24 miles.

She says: "The only thing I have changed is some of the routes, just to bring in a bit of variety as things can get stale otherwise. Also, you don't want to compare times for every run you do but I did some time trials which were faster than last year. I feel I am stronger than I was last year but first and foremost I want to win rather than worry about fast times."

Deena Drossin Surpasses Joan Benoit Samuelson's 2:21:21
From the pre-race USATF news story:
Deena Drossin will try to better Joan Benoit Samuelson's American record of 2:21:21 from her win at the 1985 Chicago Marathon.

From the Flora London Marathon pre-race press release:
Deena Drossin, who finished second to Werknesh Kidane of Ethiopia in the World Cross Country Championships in Lausanne last month, would be aiming for a personal best in London. "All of us on the start line are prepared and I'm excited about that," she said. "I want to run 2:20, so I will see how I feel halfway through the race and pick it up from there."

With talk of Paula being capable of 2:16 or even 2:15, Drossin was quick to state: "I will not be running at 2:15 pace," with Tulu also adamant that she would simply run to the best of her ability. She admitted: "I've been running in the 2:20s, but I know I must get under that. But anything is possible, and I will do my best." Neither would rule out victory in the race, however, agreeing that a lot can go wrong in 26 miles.

Catherine Ndereba, the second fastest female marathon runner of all time with 2:18:47 who was runner-up to Radcliffe in Chicago, has trained in her native Kenya despite running all her previous competitive marathons in the USA, and commented: "I don't like the weather in America, so I stuck to my own country for training."

Catherine Ndereba is the only one of the three to have run under 2:20, and replied confidently when asked if losing the world record to Radcliffe had been painful, saying: "Whatever goes, normally comes back and records are there to be broken." Comparing her decision to run in London for the first time to one who feels like a change in diet, she revealed: "I see London as just like any other course. I've done eight marathons and I'm hoping for the same thing."

Deena Drossin, who has enormous respect for the Bedford athlete (Radcliffe), commented: "The raising of the bar and lowering of times is extremely motivating. I don't think there are limitations which is humbling, but at the same time exciting."