It had been a disappointing World Athletics Championships for Great Britain, but not for Bedford's Paula Radcliffe who won gold in the marathon on Sunday. It was her first track gold medal.
 | | Paula crosses the finish line |
Radcliffe won convincingly, in a Championships' record time of two hours, twenty minutes and fifty-seven seconds. She was was absolutely delighted to win and there must also have been a fair amount of relief after last year's disappointment, where she infamously walked off the road in despair during the Olympic race in Athens. It was a different story in Helsinki where, in a really impressive run, she not only broke the Games' record, she also beat her old rival and defending champion Catherine Ndereba of Kenya into second place. She then wept tears of joy on the victory podium because at last she'd got that World athletics medal that she'd craved. Paula said she felt totally different during this marathon to her condition during last year's race in Athens.
 | | Paula on the victory podium |
"I think the faith is there when you come into it and know that you've done the preparation and that you're strong and you're healthy" she said. "The problem last year was that I knew things were kind of falling apart in the last two weeks before it [the race] so I didn't have the trust there that my body was strong. "This year I did, and I knew that everything had gone well. It was just a case of getting out there today and executing it." | 
