A GOLD FOR GUTS - RADCLIFFE RUNS HER HEART OUT
Paula Radcliffe is helped to her feat by Sonia O'Sullivan, right, after missing out on the medals in fourth after a brave run
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A HALF-HOUR after the race, tears welled in Paula Radcliffe's eyes. Mere mention of the word "fourth" and she blinked, as you do when trying to deal with tearful emotions. Every couple of minutes, she would remember that despite everybody's congratulations on her performance, she had finished fourth. She had come to win: to leave with nothing was too much.
Yet who could say she has left empty-handed? Great Britain have won nine gold medals, 10 silvers and six bronze - enough metal to capsize Steve Redgrave's boat. But, for 30 minutes at the Olympic Stadium yesterday, medals seemed not to matter.
Nothing more to give: Britain's Paula Radcliffe collapses on the track gulping for air after her brave effort in the Olympic 10,000m final. Picture: John Giles
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At the end of the 10,000m race, Radcliffe was wasted and drained. No medal, but a performance and an offering as precious as anything that went before.
It wasn't the time to say there are things in life more important than medals. But she has them. Does the courage, ambition and sheer bloody-mindedness of the frontrunner not count for something?
We remember Ron Clarke and Dave Bedford long after the men who beat them at some major championships.
Yet Radcliffe's guts on the track are a mere reflection of the inner woman. From her first days as an elite athlete she sensed the cheating that poisons her sport. She could have joined the cheats, but she took the harder option and chose to fight them, on and off the track.
The red ribbon she wears on her running vest is her protest, her opposition to doping and her plea for effective blood tests. Britain sent hundreds of competitors to the Olympic Games; none was more entitled to represent the nation than Radcliffe, the current Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year. Sport, especially Olympic sport, should stand for something more than winning.
Yet the irony of yesterday's race is that winning was what Radcliffe had in her head. She knows that the way to produce the fastest time is to run negative splits - that is to run the second half of the race faster than the first. But she set out to do exactly the opposite.
"It would have been easier to run the first half slow and then faster in the second half but it would have been easier for the other girls too, and I was going to find it hard against them in a fast last lap," she said. "I thought Tegla Loroupe might help a little but she had a 2hr 29min marathon in her legs and couldn't do much.
"I knew that if the Ethiopians or [Fernanda] Ribeiro came to the front it would only be to slow things down. That's what happened and then the last two laps were so hard."
Radcliffe's tactics were founded on the silver medal that she won at the World Championships in Seville 12 months ago. Then she had set off sensibly, picked up the pace as the race progressed but could not shake off the slightly-built Ethiopian, Gete Wami.
To run the same race in Sydney would have been to accept that the gold medal wasn't possible, so Radcliffe started quicker, knowing that in trying to hurt others she would have to punish herself.
It was compelling to watch. In front after 300m, she didn't so much make the pace as force it. Her head nodded rhythmically, as it always does, and the nodding, as always, became more pronounced as Radcliffe dug deep to hurt more. There is no difficulty imagining the mental battle raging as she raced; a body clamouring for respite, a spirit that refused to listen.
But what draws us most to Radcliffe is that she humanises a sport that has lost much of its humanity.
She nods her head almost to propel herself forward. The pain of the race is drawn on her face and the arms pump as if to give the right example to her aching legs. We look at her and think: "Yes, we know how she feels." Her wrenching pain is in some part ours.
The rest knew what Radcliffe would try, and from that first lap, they queued up behind her. Sonia O'Sullivan, the Ethiopians Derartu Tulu and Wami, the Portuguese Ribeiro and the Kenyan Loroupe. Radcliffe is a natural pacemaker and she relentlessly churned out 72sec laps. O'Sullivan was the first to feel the pace and lost her place in the leading group after six laps.
That still left Radcliffe with four rivals who were all prepared to race in her slipstream. Tulu and Wami raced with a flowing ease that showed, come what may, they were going to be there at the end. The giant screens at either end of the stadium gave Radcliffe glimpses of the ambush awaiting her.
"I kept looking up at the screens and I could see the four girls there. One part of me was saying, 'You're definitely going to get a top-five
finish here', because I knew I wasn't going to die. Another part kept thinking I had to do better, had to keep piling on the pressure and hope I could burn off those behind me."
Try as she might, Radcliffe could not break clear. The effort to do so weakened her, and with six laps to go, the Ethiopians went past her and then slowed the pace slightly. The slight easing of the tempo gave Radcliffe time to recuperate and soon she was back, vying for the lead.
Two laps later Ribeiro overtook the Englishwoman but only to slow things down. Radcliffe wouldn't allow it and soon regained the initiative. She pushed on and it was clear that Loroupe was in trouble. But no matter how hard Radcliffe went, the Ethiopians and the Portuguese stayed right on her heels.
At the bell, Tulu and Wami accelerated past her, then Ribeiro went too. The Ethiopians went so fast that Radcliffe knew straightaway a bronze medal was the only possibility.
Tulu flew clear of Wami and she had to battle to stay clear of the strongly finishing Rib-eiro. Gold for Tulu,
silver for Wami, bronze for Ribeiro and then Radcliffe. A yard beyond the line, she collapsed and surrendered to an unforgiving track. It was O'Sullivan, two places behind her, who tried to lift her.
"Sonia was great. She picked me up and said, 'You've done everything you could out there, I couldn't stay with it, it was too fast'. I ran a personal best and I won't ever have to say, 'I should have done this' or 'I should have done that'. I ran the race I planned to run and it was the only way I could have won."
As Radcliffe spoke, her red ribbon reminded all who asked the questions that the arena remains imperfect: "Improving the tests is very important to me. We now have blood tests and we're doing better. I've made my protest and I don't need to carry it into the race, but the blood tests are not effective enough. That will be shown by the fact that there are no EPO positives at these Olympics. We also need to work on coming up with a test for human growth hormones."
But isn't it important to leave the stadium knowing you have raced honestly? Is it not easier to sleep knowing you have given every last ounce of yourself?
"Yes," said Radcliffe, "I will sleep tonight but I will sleep without a medal."
Again, it seemed not the time to say some things in life are more important than medals.
DAVID WALSH
Sunday Times
