Jamaica's Trecia Smith excels at triple jump but loves the unknown status London life affords her

She is just 20 and only took up the pole vault in 2008. Now she is one of the world's best. She talks to Simon Turnbull

Home athletes on the podium will earn riches beyond their wildest dreams from sponsors, TV shows and a host of other deals

Paula Radcliffe will become only the third British track and field athlete to be selected for five Olympics after her place in Team GB for London 2012 was confirmed today.

She always said she'd give up performing to have a family when she hit 30. Now she's 29 and pregnant. Rob Sharp reports

Charles van Commenee - the pragmatic, spade’s-a-spade-calling Dutchman in charge of the British track and field team - had it just about right when he stood at the side of the wind-swept Paula Radcliffe Stadium in Loughorough a week past Sunday. “What about Paula Radcliffe?” Van Commenee had been asked, while giving his thoughts on the state of the host nation’s athletics talent as the pre-Olympic year track season got underway.

The veteran warrior of the women's marathon was back in action on the streets of London yesterday. For the wounded Paula Radcliffe, it proved to be a losing battle. In the city where she forged her reputation as the finest female marathon runner of all time, making a winning debut in 2002 and clocking a stunning world record in 2003, the 37-year-old Briton was beaten not just by two domestic rivals but also by the latest injury blow to have struck her on the road to an Olympic marathon.

There are 466 days to go before London welcomes the world to the 2012 Olympic Games. It seems Paula Radcliffe will need every one of them if she is to catch up with the painfully shy little Kenyan woman who made a big statement of intent on the road from Blackheath to The Mall yesterday.

It was in 1988 that Jo Pavey first made a mark on the national athletics scene. She was 14-year-old Jo Davis at the time.

Even the prospect of Paula Radcliffe’s return after pregnancy (to competitive racing next month and to the marathon this autumn) failed to knock Liliya Shobukhova out of her confident stride yesterday as she prepared for the defence of her Virgin London Marathon title on Sunday - and looked ahead to what she called her “golden chance” of Olympic marathon glory in London in 2012. “I respect Paula, but I don’t fear her,” said the Russian who has established herself as the world number one in the women’s marathon in the 17 months since Radcliffe has been out of commission and given birth to her second child.