Radcliffe may decide to hang up her spikes

PAULA Radcliffe said yesterday she is thinking of moving on from track running for good, having finished ninth in Saturday’s 10,000m.

“I wouldn’t say it is totally behind me,” the 31-year-old said. “You never know, but I’m probably moving on.”

Radcliffe has never won a world track title in her 12-year career as a senior, coming closest at the 1999 Seville world championships, when she took silver in the 10,000m.

Radcliffe led for the first half of Saturday night’s race before coming in ninth, 18 seconds behind winner Tirunesh Dibaba, who led an Ethiopian clean sweep ahead of defending champion Berhane Adere and Ejegayehu Dibaba.

The 31-year-old said she would have liked to run faster and finish higher but was pleased with her preparation for Sunday’s marathon around the streets of the Finnish capital, when she will start as favourite to win gold.

“I got a hard run-out which was the aim of last night,” said Radcliffe, who said the last lap of 58 seconds was ‘frightening.’

“I didn’t run as fast as I was hoping to but the conditions had a lot to do with that. I didn’t have the pace to go with the race in the end probably because I still had so much training in my legs.

“I ran 30 minutes 42 seconds, which is similar to what I ran in New Orleans (before winning the London marathon in April) but it was a lot windier Saturday night and up and down in the second part of the race.

“If I’d run faster I’d have been even more confident but I don’t come away thinking something is wrong. I had a good run out, a shorter run than normal because I would normally have done my last 90-minute run, but yeah, mission accomplished.”

Radcliffe confirmed she had worn normal track shoes last night rather than spikes to ensure her legs were 100% for the marathon, but she insisted she had not taken it easy during the race.

“I’d be lying if I said at any point in that race I thought ‘I’m going to back off and save something for the marathon’ because I didn’t,” she added.

And she dismissed the idea that any of her marathon rivals would have gained an advantage from seeing her run the 10,000m.

“The marathon is about going in and knowing you’re strong and have done the training,” she said.

“I don’t think there’s many girls in the marathon that could have gone out there and run faster than me last night.”