Radcliffe's world record under threat from 'unfair' ruling

Radcliffe will be challenging for the Olympic title (GETTY IMAGES)

It is not just a rewriting of the record books but also a changing of the goalposts more than eight years after the event. As Paula Radcliffe ticks down the hours towards her return to marathon racing in Berlin on Sunday, the world governing body of athletics is planning to tick off her tour de force of a world record and replace it with her third-fastest time at the classic 26 miles 385 yards distance.

"I think it is a little unfair to set it retroactively," the 37-year-old Briton told the Runner's World website yesterday. It was an entirely justifiable reaction to the declared intention of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to downgrade women's marathon performances set by women in mixed gender races from January next year.

It would mean that the stunning time of 2hr 15min 25sec that Radcliffe set while racing alongside male athletes in London in 2003 would cease to be regarded as the women's world record and become a "world best" instead. The officially recognised world record would become the 2:17:42 that the Bedfordshire athlete clocked in a women's only field in London in 2005.

"If they were going to make that rule, it should have been so from the beginning when world records came in on the roads," Radcliffe added. "Now it is messy. In my two mixed races it was not my decision – rather the race organisers' – to have male runners with me.

"And in each case I very consciously ran alongside them rather than ever behind. Indeed, in London, I was actively racing the two guys. Furthermore, I fully believe that I would have run pretty much the same time that day alone with the crowds and motorbikes.

"I think it is a decision that is going to be hard to fully enforce. Look at how many national and area records are set in mixed races. However, rules are rules and I am not stressing about things that are out of my control."

Radcliffe is focused on securing selection for what would be her fifth Olympics with an impressive performance in Berlin on Sunday but she will be assured by the opposition that is mounting to the IAAF's record book revision.

The World Marathon Majors – the umbrella organisation comprising the Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York City events – and the Association of International Marathons, which represents more than 300 races worldwide, said in a joint statement that the change "does not represent what is required by road running".

The statement went on to say that the two bodies "believe that there should be two world records for women's road-running performances, separately recognising those achieved in mixed competition and women's only conditions."