Radcliffe banishes Athens ghosts with marathon win

BRITAIN’S world record holder Paula Radcliffe banished memories of her Athens Olympics nightmare and ended years of near misses when she won the women’s marathon at the World Athletics Championships yesterday.

The 31-year-old had failed to finish both the marathon and the 10,000 metres in Athens but she made no mistake here as her bold front-running style saw her coast to her first global track title and give her country their first gold of the championships.

Radcliffe timed 2 hours, 20 minutes, 57 seconds a championships record while Kenya's defending champion Catherine Ndereba took silver in 2hr 22min 01sec and Constantina Tomescu of Romania took the bronze in 2hr 23min 19sec.