On This Day in 2003: Paula Radcliffe sets world marathon record

She defender her London title.

Paula Radcliffe smashed the women’s world marathon record when winning in London in 2003 (Rebecca Naden/PA) (PA Archive)

Paula Radcliffe set a stunning women’s world marathon record on this day in 2003 when she defended her London Marathon title.

Radcliffe became the first woman to run under two hours 16 minutes with a new record time of two hours 15 minutes and 25 seconds, to eclipse the record she had set when winning the Chicago Marathon six months earlier.

She beat that mark in Chicago by a minute and 53 seconds and finished more than four minutes ahead of second-placed Kenyan Catherine Ndereba, while Deena Drossin set a new American record to finish third.

Radcliffe, then 29, was also the first Briton over the finishing line in the mixed sex event that used male pacemakers.

“I suffered some stomach cramps in the last five or six miles but that has happened before – it was only my body telling me I was hurting it,” Radcliffe said.

“The last two miles was particularly hard, but when we turned out of the wind at Big Ben it got easier.”

The Briton held the women only and mixed sex world marathon records until 2017 and 2019 respectively when a new record in both categories was set by Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei.

Radcliffe, awarded an MBE in 2002, went on to win the London Marathon for a third time in 2005 and sealed gold in the event at the World Championships in Helsinki later that year, but an Olympic medal at any distance eluded her.

She announced her retirement from competitive running after the London Marathon in 2015, aged 41.