Radcliffe: It's good to be back

Paula Radcliffe may have been nearly eight minutes slower than her world record, but her victory in yesterday's ING New York City Marathon was among the most important of her career.

Radcliffe finished ahead of Susan Chepkemei in two hours 23 minutes 10 seconds.

"It's good to be back, feeling like myself and enjoying it," said Radcliffe after the closest ever finish in the New York event.

Radcliffe put herself back in the limelight 11 weeks after failing to finish the Olympic marathon.

Radcliffe compared yesterday to her Athens nightmare and said: "I felt totally different. I felt totally myself, nothing like the emptiness and horrible feeling I had then - no dizziness."

Many critics argued Radcliffe was silly to run so early after her struggles in Greece and suggested she should wait and do a spring marathon next year.

"She needed to do that to put herself back where she belongs," said her mother, who was with Radcliffe's husband Peter in New York to watch the race.

Thirty-year-old Radcliffe not only ignored the critics' well-meant pleas but chose the world's toughest `big city' marathon course for the comeback.

She found out how difficult and undulating the 26 miles, 385 yards around the five New York State boroughs are when fighting a tense head-to-head race with Chepkemei in the final few miles.

Her Kenyan rival, runner-up in the event three years ago, proved a more than able rival after all of the much more fancied opposition fell away.

Indeed even in the last mile, no punter would have bet his shirt on which of the pair would triumph in a truly great race.

Radcliffe's strength and finishing speed proved the decisive factor when she edged ahead of Chepkemei - a winner of four major US road races this year - with less than 400 yards of the race remaining.

Radcliffe said: "I was just confident in hanging on and running hard in the closing stages to win the race."

It was estimated 224million viewers in 125 countries also viewed the classic event.

South Africa's Hendrick Ramaala, who also failed to finish the Olympic marathon, won the men's title in 2:09:28.