PAULA RADCLIFFE was denied a third successive victory in the ING New York Marathon yesterday as her old nemesis, Derartu Tulu, returned to haunt her.
On the start line, England’s four-times winner and world record-holder pronounced herself: “happy, healthy and ready to go”. But that confident veneer was stripped away with every passing mile through the city’s five boroughs.
An unusually tentative Radcliffe never stamped her control, and thus telegraphed her vulnerability to modest opposition. Overly deferential to her reputation (eight victories in 10 starts, and never beaten in a big city marathon) they eventually left her with three miles to go. Radcliffe was fourth, more than 14 minutes outside her world best.
The Ethiopian, Tulu, double Olympic 10k champion, finished in 2hr 28min 52sec, five minutes slower than Radcliffe’s winning time 12 months ago. She actually slowed and urged Radcliffe to “come on,” as she was flagging. Ludmila Petrova, winner here in 2000, was second (2:29.00) at the age of 41. That both women are older than Radcliffe may be cold consolation from a dismal and windy day.
French record-holder Christelle Daunay, locked on Radcliffe’s shoulder and seeming the most threatening early on, was third in 2:29.16, nine seconds ahead of Radcliffe who was barely able to lift her left leg by the end. She crossed the finish line grimacing in pain, clutching her left knee, and was immediately helped by Tulu, already draped in the Ethiopian flag, and the race’s chief executive, Mary Wittenberg.
The 36-year-old who had never lost a marathon outside the Olympics, blamed a left hamstring tendon injury which she’d mentioned just fleetingly on Friday. It transpires that she then went for a cortisone injection, and had several sessions with a chiropractic doctor, Scott Duke, the last just immediately before the start.
She did the damage a week past Monday, in her final session, 10 times one kilometre on the track. “I got it scanned. There’s no tear. It’s like a tino-sinovitis, where the fluid builds up in the sheath,” she said. Her doctor, in Munich, was “really hopeful it would settle down.”
For 10 miles there were no problems yesterday, but it became progressively more sore: “The whole leg started to shut down.”
Having withdrawn from both the world marathon and half marathon championships this year, this will inevitably rekindle speculation about her future, and her dream of Olympic success in London 2012. Radcliffe dismissed this: “It will go with rest . . . it just needs time.
“I certainly don’t think that, okay I had a bad race today and I was injured, that that’s the end of my career. I still think there’s a long time to go. I’ve had some bad luck this year, but I don’t think it’s because I’m older. I think it’s just once I had that hamstring thing, I had to compensate.”
The bunion surgery which kept her out of the London Marathon this year was not an issue.
Tulu was Radcliffe’s serial conqueror (10,000 metres at World and Olympic championships, and the world cross-country) before the English woman moved to the marathon.
Tulu has now taken her measure on the road, on a belated return after some low-key performances. She was a late addition to the field, after four high profile withdrawals, all of whom would have provided more menace than those who beat her yesterday.
“I’d never been able to run with Paula for more than about 15 kilometres in a marathon before,” said Tulu. When Radcliffe won world gold in 2005, she was a remote fourth.
Tulu adopted four orphans, aged from nine to 15. She has two children aged 11 and three. After the second, daughter, Ruth, she admitted she put on almost three stones. “I struggled to lose it, and even to regain fitness,” she said. “I’m a mother of two, and 37, but this tells me what it’s possible to do at any age. Now I hope to run in 2012, and bring another victory.”
So Radcliffe seems fated to be stalked by Tulu in yet another Olympics. Radcliffe led at 10, 20 and 30k (35.15, 1:10.08, 1:45.33), having reached half way in 74:05. She was still in the lead group at 35k (2:03.46).
The men’s race hinted at a possible future for Scotland. Meb Keflezighi, a former Eritrean refugee, whose father walked 600 miles across Chad to escape the war with Ethiopia, is now a naturalised American. Shettleston has a group of Eritrean international athletes who have been granted political asylum. They will be eligible for Scotland before the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
The 34-year-old Meb has been a US citizen for 11 years. Yesterday he became the first American winner since Alberto Salazar in 1982.
He finished in 2:09.15, winning $170,000. He beat Kenya’s four-times Boston winner Robert Cheruiyot by 41 seconds. The US had six of the first 10 (2:14.39 for tenth) in what marks a significant resurgence.
First Brit was 38-year-old Stuart Burton, 36th in 2:26.24. Men’s 10k splits: 10k 31.05, 20k 1:01.40, 30k 1:32.12, 40k 2:02.29. The half distance was reached in 65:07.
Britain’s Shelly Woods was denied the women’s wheelchair title by seven seconds. The 23-year-old from Blackpool, paralysed from the waist down since she fell out of a tree aged 11, was second for the third time in four years, with a time of 1:58.22. “I will keep coming back until I win it,” she said.
Edith Hunkeler, the Swiss Olympic champion and record-holder, made it five wins in five starts. Australian Kurt Fearnley, the defending champion, won for the fourth successive time in a sprint finish. Second-placed Krige Schabort being given the same time, 1:35.58.
Britain’s David Weir, the double Olympic champion and four times winner of the London Marathon, did not start because of a chest infection.
