WITH her white gloves, support stockings, and a blue hat perched like a tea cosy on her head, Paula Radcliffe seemed to have played into the hands of a local newspaper which suggested she was ''a composite of characters from Monty Python's Flying Circus''.
The hat sat uneasily yesterday on the head of the woman who will now surely be crowned world athlete of the year. It blew off shortly before 15 miles in the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, and Radcliffe surged on to secure her greatest victory with a world best time of 2hr 17min 18sec.
It was 89 seconds faster than the previous best, held by Wincatherine Ndereba, the Kenyan who finished second.
If this was a circus, then the 28-year-old British woman was the classiest act in town. Planting her feet in a mountain stream for 10 minutes, and taking iced baths to flush away toxins, may seem eccentric, but it works, and Radcliffe is a multi millionaire to prove it.
She has, this year, definitively laid to rest the reputation of gallant British loser.
Radcliffe rose to a breakfast of porridge, just as her Scottish idol, Liz McColgan, once used to fuel races. Radcliffe cooked it in a microwave at her hotel, before adding bananas and honey. Her high-profile anti-drugs stance gives her reason to feel paranoid about the prospect of food being spiked, and Ndereba's manager had ignited Radcliffe's wrath with pre-race innuendo. That was silenced as Radcliffe and her husband, Gary, took the initiative.
Ndereba headed Radcliffe by a second as the course twisted to the five kilometre mark in 16:26, with the temperature at around 43 degrees, but chaperoned by US minder Weldon Johnson, who kept celebrity-stalkers at bay, Radcliffe went on the rampage, covering the second half faster than the first.
Her split times were: 5 miles 26:14; 10 52:37; half distance 69:05, 15 1:19.03; 20 1:44.42; 25 2:10.54.
Approaching nine miles, Ndereba and the Japanese, Yoko Shibui, were still on her shoulder, but Radcliffe pulled steadily clear, and survived stomach cramps at 22 miles. ''I thought I was going to have to stop,'' she said. It was, quite simply, the finest endurance performance by any UK athlete. Last Brit to hold a world best in an endurance event was David Moorcroft, at 5000m, 20 years ago.
This year she has retained the world cross-country crown, and taken Commonwealth and European track titles at 5000 and 10,000m, with the second best time ever at the latter. The strength she has gained by stepping up mileage to cope with the marathon distance has made the difference.
Nderba was gracious, and conceded Radcliffe: ''did a great job'', but is unlikely to be high on Radcliffe's Christmas list. Her manager, Lisa Buster, had complained because the world body had decided not to subject Radcliffe to a dope test on the run-in to the race.
The IAAF thought they were doing her a favour, because she had already been tested so often this year, and deemed it pointless. Though a fierce anti-doping campaigner, Radcliffe has been scurrilously treated by the French media, and spent much of Thursday and Friday demanding that such a test be done on her, to give no further opportunity for unwarranted slurs. She was delighted when doping analysis was eventually arranged before the race.
''I was trying to hold it back in the first half and one or two US guys trying to get their times was a help,'' said Radcliffe. ''I'm definitely having a holiday now, and I'm chucking the trainers away until I get home.''
Khalid Khannouchi, who set the men's world best of 2:05.38 in London this year, and had previously held it at 2:05.42 in one of his three previous Chicago wins, was on world schedule for most of the race, but was undone by the elements in the latter stages.
The Moroccan-born American was one of a group of eight who reached half distance in 62:25. He hit the front at 24 miles, and was still 10 seconds inside record pace a mile later, and wept in frustration after having finished in 2:05.56. ''We could have run for a world record, but it was really windy and cold,'' he said.
The next three places were covered by just two seconds, with second and third both given the same time, 2:06.16.
Details, Digest, below
Marathon milestones
3:40.22 Violet Piercy (Eng) *1926
3:37.07Mary Lepper (USA) **1963
3:27.45Dale Greig (Sco) 1964
3:07.27 Anni Erdkamp (Ger) 1967
2:46.30 Adrienne Beames (Aus) 1971
2:38.19 Jackie Hansen (USA) 1975
2:35.15 Chantal Langlace (Fra) 1977
2:31.23 Joan Benoit (USA) 1980
2:29.57 Joyce Smith (Eng) 1981
2:26:46 Allison Roe (NZ)1981
2:25.29 Grete Waitz (Nor) 1983
2:21.06Ingrid Kristiansen (Nor) 1985
2:20.43 Tegla Loroupe (Ken) 1999
2:19.46Naoko Takahashi (Jpn) 2001
2:18.47 Catherine Ndereba (Ken) 2001
2:17.18 Paula Radcliffe (Eng) 2002
*Solo time trial ** Uncertified course
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