Radcliffe banishes ghosts of Athens in New York

THE talk was of banishing ghosts, gaining redemption and staging a comeback, yet Paula Radcliffe will remember her road back from Olympic disaster to New York triumph most of all for a dodgy eve-of-race plate of spaghetti bolognaise.

It had been just 77 days since Radcliffe went into the Olympic women’s marathon as the hot favourite on the streets of Athens, only to see her dream of a gold medal disappear. She was forced out of the Games through total depletion arising, she discovered later, from the after-effects of a stomach injury.

Yesterday, over 26.2 miles, Radcliffe bounced back with a vengeance, heading the women’s professional field in the ING New York City Marathon from the off and leading from tape to tape in a time of two hours, 23 minutes, 10 seconds.