Queen of England
LONDON marathon winner Paula Radcliffe has claimed she is capable of beating her new world record. Radcliffe destroyed her own previous world record by almost two minutes in Sunday's London Marathon with a devastating display. But the 29-year- old maintained that she has yet to reach her peak.
"It's not in my mind that I can't run faster," she said. "I don't think any of us like to say we have reached our best because you don't know. You have to hope that you can keep running faster."
And she dismissed claims that the use of male pacemakers artificially boosted her time. "I don't think it made much difference," she said. "I still feel like I ran 26.2 miles as hard as I could."
Radcliffe, right, has set her sights on an Olympic gold medal to complement her Commonwealth and European titles. "The next time I am likely to run a marathon is likely to be in the Olympics," she said. "It's not likely to be before then."
Third-placed Deena Drossin was full of praise for her rival's performance. "It was an impressive performance by Paula. I can't wait to see the clips of it," Drossin said. "I think it's an inspiration to other runners to make little extra sacrifices, to start training at a higher level to try to close the gap again."
The men's race was in sharp contrast to Radcliffe's world record effort, but no less exciting. Whereas Radcliffe set a fast pace throughout, the men were far more conservative.
Gezahegne Abera took the honours in a thriller. The Ethiopian was one of five athletes with a chance of victory as the leading group came onto The Mall five abreast.
But after Abdel-Kader Al-Mouaziz and Paul Tergat fell off the pace in the sprint finish it became a three- way race for the line. And it was Abera who finished the fastest, with Italy's Stefano Baldini and Joseph Ngolepus of Kenya in second and third.
"There were so many athletes around towards the end that it was complicated, but my instinct told me when to go," the 24-year-old Abera said.
"I knew that (Paul) Tergat could be a threat, but I saw at the last minute that he was tired so I did not feel threatened by him, and I'm always confident that I can make a good finish."
The leaders remained tightly bunched throughout, and when they reached the embankment with five still in the frame, it became overly tactical.
Moroccan Al-Mouaziz, a former two-time London winner, attempted to up the ante but his efforts to break the group up came to nothing.
Baldini and Ngolepus also took their chances at the front of the field but again the group stayed together only breaking after they had turned onto The Mall.
The first to crack was Al-Mouaziz, who had looked in severe trouble in the closing stages and was passed by Tanzania's Samson Ramadhani on the line before Tergat also found the pace too hot.
It was Abera's speed which was the deciding factor, the World and Olympic champion proving too strong over the final few metres.
It is a tried and tested tactic, Abera winning his previous three marathons by margins of one second, three seconds and two seconds.
On this occasion he left it even later, finishing with the same time as Baldini, echoes of the first London Marathon when Dick Beardsley and Inge Simonsen crossed the line hand-in-hand.
Ngolepus, who won the 2001 Berlin Marathon after starting as a pacemaker, broke his own personal best to claim an impressive third place in such a competitive field.
