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Radcliffe is rumbled Briton is no match for flying Ethiopians who sweep medals with sub-60 final lap
DESPITE suffering one of the most crushing defeats of her career, Paula Radcliffe insists she can still challenge for medals over 10,000m at future championships. She also maintains that the experience will not affect her chances in the marathon on Sunday. Only time will tell, but the statistics paint a gloomy picture. Finishing ninth in the world 10,000m final last Saturday night was her worst performance on the track at a major championship. The last time she did this badly she was 20 years old and finished seventh in the 3000m at the 1993 World Championships. Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia ran the final lap in 58.5 seconds. Radcliffe’s lifetime best for 400m is only 58.9. It is not as if the overall times were slow either. In cool, windy conditions, Dibaba won in 30:24.02, leading Berhane Adere and her older sister Ejagayou to an Ethiopian sweep of the medals. Radcliffe ran 30:42.75 compared to her best of 30:01.09, which was set when winning the European title in Munich in 2002. Over the final 600m, when Radcliffe finally started to lose contact with the medal contenders, she conceded an embarrassing 18 seconds to the winner.
Full story in issue 59-32, 10th August 2005.
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