Athletics: Radcliffe runs at a Wagnerian pace

One way or another, it would seem, the 2003 London Marathon is going to be a fitting memorial to the co-founder and chief inspiration of the great British race. It was one of the late Chris Brasher's prime objectives that the event should stimulate the improvement of British mara-thon running. The withdrawal last week of Mark Steinle, because of a blood disorder, means the fastest British runner lining up in this year's race next Sunday will be Paula Radcliffe.

Setting aside the chauvinistic downside of that factual equation, the upside is a measure of the marathon talent Britain happens to possess in the slender shape of the remarkable Radcliffe. Accord-ing to the Hungarian Scoring Tables, the statistical device used by the International Association of Athletics Federations to determine the relative merits of performances in different events, the 2hr 17min 18sec the Bedfordshire woman recorded in the Chicago marathon last October is the best mark by a female runner in the whole of the world-record book. It equates to a 100m time of 10.42sec, 0.07sec quicker than Florence Griffith-Joyner's apparently untouchable record, or a 10,000m time of 29min 26.10sec, 5.68sec faster than Wang Junxia's equally elevated performance.

The likelihood, however, is that Radcliffe can go even quicker. And to help her do so in London the organisers have turned to the running art at which Brasher was such a master: that of pacemaking.

Ten male runners have been hired to set five separate tempos in the élite women's race, which will again start ahead of the main race. The Kenyans Simon Lopuyet and an Eliud Lagat will set off with instructions to run at 2hr 16min pace, 5min 12sec per mile. The intention is that Radcliffe will accompany them and that, depending on her form along the way from Blackheath to The Mall, they might crank up the speed to 2:15 pace, 5:10 miling.

It is a plan that would have been keenly appreciated by Brasher, whoperformed half of the most famous pacemaking duties of all, leading Roger Bannister past the half-way mark before Chris Chataway towed the medical student on his way through the four-minute mile barrier in May 1954. Less famously, Brasher jogged the first two laps of a special mile race held in conjunction with the Surrey schools championships a year earlier before speeding up and helping Bannister through the latter stages. But the British Amateur Athletic Board refused to accept Bannister's time, 4min 2.00sec, as a British record.

Half a century on, there has been much talk about the IAAF frowning on the circumstances of Radcliffe's record attempt in the race that was Brasher's baby. The world governing body will raise no objections, though, if the male pacemakers finish the race, thereby keeping up with the appearance of what the IAAF insist on being billed as a separate "mixed" race.

The charade is necessary because Radcliffe is too quick for the rest of the women in the 35,000 field and because the London organisers, bowing to television demands for a detached women's event, have declined her request for the élite women to be included in the main race.

The irony is that London officials have long ignored performances achieved by women with the assistance of male pacemakers in mixed races – to such an extent Radcliffe will receive a £78,000 world-record bonus simply for beating the "women only" race best she set on her marathon debut in the English capital last year, 2hr 18min 56sec.

It is ironic, too, that the London organisers have turned for help not to Weldon Johnson, the Texan runner who paced Radcliffe so adeptly in Chicago, but to Volker Wagner, the man who masterminded Tegla Loroupe's world-record-breaking marathon runs in Rotterdam in 1998 and Berlin in 1999. Loroupe was paced by male Kenyan compatriots on both occasions, drawing criticism from many quarters, most strongly from London Marathon officials, who have now enlisted the assistance of her German manager and coach. Wagner guides the running careers of Lopuyet and Lagat, and is preparing them for their pacemaking mission in London.

Far from crowing, the affable Wagner applauds London for "doing it the right way".

"I think this is the best way to help Paula break her world record," he said. "I know from Tegla's experience that when you have the élite women running in a mixed race, many men can get in the way. They just want to be on TV. They overtake and then slow down and upset your rhythm. They also stop you getting to the water at the drinks station."

Not Lopuyet and Lagat. Their task will be to get Radcliffe to The Mall flowing as smoothly, and as swiftly, as possible. "She has run 30min for 10,000m, so she can run a marathon in 2hr 16min," Wagner asserted. "On a good day, 2:15 would be possible."

And what a great British run that would be in Chris Brasher's great British race.