Paula Radcliffe

Paula Radcliffe ( Paula Radcliffe Jane, born December 17 1973 in Northwich, Cheshire ) is a British long-distance runner.

She set the current world record (as of October 2011) in the marathon at the 2003 London Marathon with a time of 2:15:25 h, was 2005 World Champion over the same distance and won three times the New York Marathon ( 2004, 2007, 2008) and the London Marathon (2002, 2003 and 2005).

Career

Youth

Paula Radcliffe grew up in a sports-loving family. Your great-aunt Charlotte Radcliffe had won at the Olympic Summer Games in Antwerp in 1920 with the British 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay silver medal in swimming.

Radcliffe won their first successes in cross- country skiing, including the title of Junior World Champion in 1992. Having had a break in 1994 due to injury and even pulled out a career in the end whereas it achieved in the years to impressive results on the track. In 1996 she was British champion in 5000 -meter run, and in 1998 they broke in Lisbon at her debut in the 10,000 -meter run with 30:48,58 min the nearly seven -year-old British record by Liz McColgan.

The beginning of an international career

The big success at the IAAF World Championships and Olympic Games, she was left but initially failed. At the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg she was fifth over 5000 meters, the same place she took over the same distance at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and at the 1997 World Championships in Athens, she finished fourth.

In 1998 she took then at the European Cross Country Championships her first international title in the adult area, and at the 1999 World Championships in Seville with a second place finish in the 10,000 meters the first podium place in this tournament.

The 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney brought again a disappointment when she finished only fourth place in the 10,000 meters. She had led 24 of 25 laps, but was overtaken in the final meters of the winner Derartu Tulu and Gete Wami and Fernanda Ribeiro. In the autumn of the same year, however, she won at the World Half Marathon Championships in Veracruz, and it became apparent that they could achieve the success in the road race, which remained denied her on the track due to lack of Endschnelligkeit.

The same pattern was repeated the following year. The season began promisingly with a victory at the World Cross Country Championships, but at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton it was überspurtet before the target of three Ethiopian runners, finishing in fourth place. However, they could defend the world title in the half marathon in Bristol with 1:06:47 hours and missed it only by three seconds the world record of Elana Meyer.

In 2002 she defended her World Cross Country Champion title, fetched at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester over 5000 meters its first international title on the track with British record ( 14:31,42 min) and at the European Championships in Munich in 2002 their first international title in the 10,000 meters, being a European record aufstellte min with 30:01,09, which was broken in 2008 by Elvan Abeylegesse. Nevertheless, she moved - not least with regard to the African competition only absent there - from the experience of the consequence, in future to devote himself mainly to the Marathon: On the longer distance could be their ability to smooth, efficient power division play better.

Marathon successes in series

Even before the European Championships she won the London Marathon in 2:18:56 h and was thus at once the second fastest woman in the world over this distance. In the fall a win at Chicago Marathon followed in a world record time of 2:17:17 h In the same year she became a world track and field athlete of the year and for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Sportsman of the Year in the UK, was elected.

In 2003 she started the season at the World 's Best 10K, which she had won in the previous year, with a world record ( 30:21 min) in the 10 - km road race. Then the London Marathon she worked with 2:15:25 h on another world record. However, an injury prevented participation in the World Athletics Championships, was to compensate them in the fall in Vilamoura again world champion in the half marathon and European champion in cross-country running.

After they had set up in June in Bydgoszcz 14:29,11 with a new personal best over 5000 meters min ( which she is fifth fastest woman of all time over this distance ), she experienced a great disappointment in the marathon of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, as they few kilometers had to give up exhausted before the finish. The reason for the sudden drop in performance so late in the course of the race they called a sensitive response of the stomach to an anti-inflammatory agent that was administered for the treatment of their suffered shortly before the tournament injury. Doubt as to their form they did with her victory at the New York City Marathon still silent in the same season.

In 2005, she ran in the London Marathon, in which the elite women separately entered the race, the fastest time ever achieved in an all-women Marathon: 2:17:42 h excited stir in the public it is also captured by the television cameras images the bathroom break, they lodged in the absence of a toilet on the wayside.

At the World Championships in Helsinki in 2005 she went to the two longest running events at the start. Over 10,000 meters they first tried again with a tempo run from the front, but this could get through only half the distance. She held still until the start of the final round to connect the top group, the final sprint of the four Ethiopian runners but not followed and ended ninth. But your actual ambitions were already the marathon, in which they determined from the outset the pace and aufstellte 2:20:57 h with a new record for the world championships.

Maternity leave and comeback in 2007

After a baby break of almost two years, she succeeded on November 4, 2007 comeback with a victory at the New York City Marathon in a time of 2:23:09 h

The following year was marked by injuries. Problems with the toes prevented a start at the London Marathon after a spider bite she suffered from fever, and finally a fatigue fracture of the femur was diagnosed. Nevertheless, she decided to just before the Olympic Games in Beijing to participate in the local marathon. By kilometer 30 they could keep up, then gave her the calf trouble, so they had to stop short at kilometer 37 to stretch them. In a time of 2:32:38 hours they finally came in 23rd place.

Your track record in the marathon was marred to date only by her two Olympic marathons. In their other seven starts she was always victorious and scored four of the five fastest times ever overflowed (as of August 2008). Your first marathon defeat outside of the Olympics they had at the New York City Marathon in 2009 suffered, they suffered from knee problems and only reached fourth place. Radcliffe had her comeback at the Berlin Marathon on September 25, 2011, in which she finished in 2:23:46 hours in third place. The 2012 Olympic Games in London, she had to cancel due to injury.

Bests

Personal

Paula Radcliffe is 1,73 m tall and has a competition weight of 54 kg. She's since 2000 with the middle-distance runner Gary Lough ( Best Performance: 3:34,76 min 1995 1500 -meter run ) married. In January 2007, she brought a daughter into the world, in September 2010, she became the mother of a son. In 2002 she was awarded the Order MBE. Radcliffe joined Loughborough University to study European Studies with distinction; she is fluent in German and French.