Athletics: Radcliffe turns to London challenge

Paula Radcliffe is the kind of runner who often gives the impression of running into a headwind, even when she is not.

The familiar straining, head-bobbing style was evident once again at the Leopardstown Racecourse here on Saturday as she retained her IAAF World Cross Country title over eight kilometres. But on this occasion the headwind as she entered the long, uphill furlong to the finish was real, driving in from the direction of the Dublin Mountains to tug at the grandstand flags and slow the protagonists' progress to a hunched struggle.

Radcliffe knew as soon as she began to warm up that the wind would create, "a tough person's race". She also knew, after eight weeks of altitude training at Albequerque designed for her intended double of World Cross Championships and Flora London Marathon within the space of three weeks, that she was that tough person.

Having striven for nine years to earn this title, and been tantalisingly close on so many occasions before coming through in the mud of Ostend, the 28-year-old Bedford runner had an outstanding opportunity to claim a second consecutive gold. The conditions favoured her strength, and the absence of two of her main Ethiopian rivals – Derartu Tulu who passed her virtually on the line to win the 1997 title and Gete Wami, whom she outsprinted to the title last year – offered further comfort.

But Radcliffe still had to deliver, a prospect which caused her an uncharacteristically restless night on the eve of the race. From start to finish, she was as genuine a champion here as any thoroughbred that had run at Leopardstown before her. And unlike Istaqbraq in his last outing here, she did not fall at the final hurdle, even though it seemed for a while that Deena Drossin of the United States might take the golden shine off her day.

Drossin is a strong and determined runner, as she demonstrated in this race two years ago in finishing 12th despite passing out on the course after swallowing a bee and being stung in the throat.

But when Radcliffe pulled 30 metres clear at the start of the final lap the likelihood that she would be the one to suffer a sting of a different kind receded and the United States had to settle for silver and bronze. Drossin's team-mate Colleen de Reuck finished third to earn the team a notable silver medal between the East African powers of Ethiopia and Kenya.

Would either Wami or Tulu, both of whom had won this event before, have been able to prevent the Briton claiming her fourth world title in the space of 18 months, taking into account the two IAAF World Half Marathon golds which she has also earned?

Neither would have enjoyed the hard going that the wind and long grass provided. And Radcliffe could point out that she had overcome Wami last year, and had beaten Tulu – who will be one of her main rivals when she makes her marathon debut on 14 April – in a 10km road race in Puerto Rico earlier this month where she missed the world best time by just four seconds.

Having decided not to compete in yesterday's women's short course race for the first time since it was added to the programme in 1998, Radcliffe was free to contemplate a night of celebration with her family and friends at the end of a day that had been very nearly perfect.

Just two faint concerns remain. Radcliffe is due to return to her Irish masseur Ger Hartmann in Limerick so that he can estimate what shape her body is in for a race in London where she'll be facing better-rested opponents, and she has a trace of doubt over a niggling problem with one of her knees. The other concern, fainter still, was the failure of her father Peter to obtain a photograph of her at the finish for the second year in succession.

That, however, was of minimal importance to a man who had proudly watched his daughter add further untarnishable lustre to her running career.

He first sensed the potential scope of her achievement in 1984 when he sat beside his then 10-year old daughter and watched the Los Angeles Olympics on the television. "We saw Shirley Strong win her silver medal in the high hurdles," he recalls. "And I remember the commentator, Ron Pickering, saying, 'That's one-up for Frodsham Harriers.' Paula had just started with Frodsham Harriers at the time, and when I looked across at her I saw the look in her eye which said, 'If she can do it, I can do it'.''

The excited dreams of that aspiring runner have now been fulfiled on more than one occasion. But huge challenges still remain, and the most gruelling over 26 miles and 385 yards looms large. Radcliffe's father, whom she watched running one of the early London marathons, is keeping his fingers crossed. "You need to be 100 per cent for the marathon, and this race has taken a lot out of her," he said.

But for the runner most recently acquainted with Radcliffe's power and maturity as an athlete, there remains little doubt about how the Briton will perform in the capital.

"She is so strong, she never ceases to amaze me," Drossin said. "Her marathon debut will be unbelievable."