Ragged Radcliffe running out of time
PAULA RADCLIFFE felt out of place in vienna’s Hero Square. Her half- marathon time of 72min 3sec was considerably her slowest ever. She immediately mouthed ‘I’m sorry’ to the race director and shook in distress as he comforted her in a bear hug a few yards beyond the finish line.
It was an ominous scene just 103 days before the start of the london olympics.
Bronchitis played its part. She had been fighting the complaint for a fortnight and finished a course of antibiotics less than 24 hours before the race. But, still, it was such a tardy performance that it placed her hopes of a medal this summer in serious doubt.
It also wrecked the close finish the event organisers had tried to engineer in the novel ‘ Champions’ Race’ between Radcliffe, the ‘Queen’, and Haile Gebrselassie, the ‘Emperor’, when they set her off 7min 52sec ahead of him. The difference was the distance between their personal bests.
But rather than enter Hero Square — with its balcony from which Hitler announced the annexation of Austria in March 1938 — the Ethiopian passed her in the middle of town, with just 15km of the 21km race gone.
He urged her on with a call of ‘hurry up’ as he waltzed by her in that free-flowing way of his en route to 60min 52sec. His exhortation was to no avail. She had started slowing by the middle of the race, her trademark nodding slightly more pronounced as the time ticked by.
She had never run slower than 70min before. Her 69min 45sec on undulating New York tarmac three years ago was her old low. Beating that was the minimum target on a flat, grey- sky cool morning that was conducive enough to see a course record set in the main race over the full distance by Henry Sugut of Kenya with 2hr 6min 58sec.
‘It was really concerning,’ she admitted, her face still red and harrowed afterwards. ‘Unfortunately I didn’t feel great at all. The first six or seven kilometres were ok but then my legs started to feel really heavy. I didn’t feel like I was struggling to breathe; my legs just wouldn’t work.
‘After that it was a lonely run, not feeling great. I was just trying to mentally switch off and keep going. Haile caught me a lot sooner than I would have hoped and I’m disappointed with the time.
‘I knew I wasn’t on top form after the last two weeks (with bronchitis) but I didn’t expect it to be that bad. I guess first of all I just have to allow myself to recover and see how things go in training. This damages by confidence more than anything.’
Just one or two more preolympic races await, the venues as yet unknown. There was a sense of the valedictory about the whole weekend: Gebrselassie, 39 on Wednesday, and Radcliffe, 38, were feted with interminable speeches and awards at a dinner in the town hall on Friday night. She was presented with a certificate to mark her contribution to ‘Clean Running’.
For Gebrselassie, there will be no london 2012 marathon because he has not qualified for the national team. She has, with 2hr 23min 46sec in Berlin last year, but some kind of fairytale finish on The Mall looks a forlorn dream.
She is targeting 2hr 20min this summer — nearly five minutes off her own unchallenged world record set nine years ago — but even that is a faint prospect based on yesterday’s showing. Injuries and illness, and even a dog bite last year, have taken on an almost comic regularity.
Gebrselassie, his usual effervescent self all weekend, admitted he was surprised by Radcliffe’s tardiness. ‘Paula’s pace is usually good,’ he said after comforting her at the end. ‘But not today. Perhaps it was just a bad day.’
He could try to qualify for the olympic 10,000metres, yet he has decided not to pursue that route. His view: ‘It’s time to give others a chance.’
Radcliffe will surely not be swayed into giving up on london 2012 at this proximity even if yesterday it looked as though she had a painfully slow reason to do so.
j.mcevoy@dailymail.co.uk