Radcliffe’s plans ruined by shock 5,000 defeat

THEY may have reclaimed their position in the top division but British athletics suffered a stunning blow at the European Cup match in Leiria, Portugal, yesterday, when Paula Radcliffe trailed in a remote second to Volha Krautsova from Belarus in the women’s 5,000m - a performance that must throw her plans for the world championships into turmoil.

While she bounced back from the double disappointment in Athens last year with big marathon victories in New York in November and London in April, yesterday’s performance left a lot to worry about with the Helsinki games a mere six weeks away.

With the double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes giving the event a miss, Great Britain, who suffered relegation last year, were looking to Radcliffe for the inspiration to gain promotion back to their rightful division.

When Jo Pavey withdrew from the 3,000m during the week she quickly agreed to double up. While she won that event on Saturday her performance - 8:50.18 - was not world shattering but few expected what was to unfold in yesterday’s 5,000m.

She set out to dominate the race and looked doing just that as she led the Belarussian, former world and Olympic champion Fernando Ribeiro and Ireland’s Maria McCambridge through the early stages.

Then the damage appeared to be self inflicted when she stepped up from her 71 second laps to split the lead group only to see Krautsova, a universities champion, cover the move, track her and then overtake her.

From here on Radcliffe drifted as Krautsova stamped her authority on the race with every stride to win in 15:10.14 from Radcliffe, 15:27.67, and Ribeiro, 15:38.34, with McCambridge steadily drifting off the pace to finish fifth in 15:58.50.

Ireland had both men and women in action at Leiria where, unlike Great Britain, they were both struggling to maintain their place in Division 1 - a battle that they would eventually lose.

David Gillick got the men off to a flying start on Saturday when he won the 400m in 45.96 secs - a time just short of his career best set a couple of weeks earlier and he proved to be one of just two Irish winners.

The other was Roisin McGhettigan who was an impressive winner of an enthralling women’s 3,000m steeplechase. With a confident performance she stayed close to the front as Jo Ankier (Great Britain), Clarisse Cruz (Portugal), and Miranda Boonstra (Holland) pushed the early pace.

Then, at half way, the Providence College student, edged to the front and began to drive ahead as the others went out the back the door.

McGhettigan was an easy winner from Cruz with Ankier battling back to overtake Boonstra for third spot.

The second day saw James Nolan run a career best time of 8:11.18 behind the Olympic 1,500m bronze medallist Rui Silva in the 3,000m.

The Portuguese runner, who was silver medallist at the distance at the world indoor championships last year, won in 8:10.26.

Paul Hession ran 20.95 secs behind Obiorah Obikwelu (Portugal), the Olympic silver medallist at 100m, in the 200m, Antoine Burke ran a career best of 51.33 secs for fourth in the 400m hurdles and Martin Fagan from Mullingar survived the heat to finish fifth in the 5,000m in 14:27.76.

The 4 x 100m relay team of Jer O’Donoghue, Gary Ryan, Paul Hession and Paul Brizzel, ran 40.14 secs for second place behind Greece.

Derval O’Rourke fought out another exciting battle with Sarah Claxton of Great Britain in the 100m hurdles, finishing second in 13.12 secs, while Eileen O’Keeffe finished second in the women’s hammer with 63.73m.

But there were far too many eighth places and Ireland succumbed to relegation in both the men’s and women’s matches. In the men’s contest Ukraine, with 115 points, and Greece, with 111 points, topped the table. Ireland on 65 and Serbia & Montenegro on 44 dropped down.

Great Britain, 134.5 points, and Belarus, 107.5 points, topped the women’s table with Ireland, 79 points and Serbia & Montenegro, 53 points, at the bottom.