Did anyone else watched Paula Radcliffe in the Marathon?
I lost all respect for her in 2003, when she employed her own personal male pacemakers in the London marathon. Although this was later banned, it should never have been allowed in the first place. The fact is, at the highest level (ie., the Olympics), she can’t hack it. She moved up from track events because she never had a finishing kick to compete with the World’s best, and just one Marathon World championship (2005) in a depleted field is hardly evidence of a consistently World class athlete. Winning the London Marathon isn’t evidence of this, either, because the leading athletes carve up the year’s marathons between them so that, on the whole, they avoid each other. Her performance at the Athens Olympics was also woeful, as were her excuses (warm weather, which was the same for everyone). A mentally weak athlete, although I do have sympathy for her for having to put up with her svengali-like domineering partner, who controls her every move.
