Radcliffe to test Berlin fitness in New York Half Marathon

New York, USA - Paula Radcliffe, the World record holder in the Marathon, will test her Berlin preparedness over the Half Marathon distance in New York on Sunday (16).

The Briton will use her first start of the year at the fourth annual NYC Half-Marathon to gauge whether she will be ready to regain the World title she won in Helsinki in 2005. Radcliffe last competed nearly 10 months ago when she won her third ING New York City Marathon title. She had bunion surgery on her right foot in March.

"Recently, my training has started to go very well. I’m definitely ready to run a half-marathon, and the NYC Half-Marathon will give me important feedback about where I am,” said Radcliffe. “After the race in New York, I will consult with my coaching and medical teams and we will make the final determination as to whether I am ready to run the marathon in Berlin. It is certainly my hope to compete there.”
Radcliffe is on the Great Britain team for the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, which starts in Berlin on Saturday, 15 August. The women’s Marathon is scheduled for Sunday 23 August.

Radcliffe is a late entry to the NYC Half-Marathon field that features top Americans including 2004 Olympic bronze medallist Deena Kastor, Olympic marathoner Ryan Hall, and three-time 10,000m Olympian Abdi Abdirahman. Also in the field are defending champion Tadese Tola of Ethiopia, defending champion and two-time Olympic medalist Catherine Ndereba of Kenya, and ING New York City Marathon 2004 winner Hendrick Ramaala of South Africa.

“Paula’s late entry adds more suspense, glamour, and intrigue to an already exciting race,” said New York Road Runners president and CEO Mary Wittenberg. “Winning the NYC Half-Marathon women’s crown has now just gotten that much harder.”

Radcliffe, 35, is only the second woman to win the New York City Marathon three times, claiming her most recent victory last year in 2:23:56. Radcliffe captured her first crown in 2004 in dramatic fashion when she out-dueled Kenyan Susan Chepkemei by three seconds in the closest women’s finish in race history.

Also accomplished at the 13.1-mile Half Marathon distance, Radcliffe has a career best of 1:05:40, which she ran at the Great North Run in 2003, the fastest ever by a woman, and she won the World Half Marathon title in 2000 and 2001. However, Radcliffe has not run a Half Marathon since her second-place finish at the Great North Run in 2007.

Radcliffe owns the women’s Marathon World record of 2:15:25, which she set in 2003 at the London Marathon. She also holds four of the five fastest women’s marathon times in history.

Jaouad Gharib of Morocco, the 2008 Olympic marathon silver medallist and two-time World Marathon champion, withdrew from the race at the insistence of his national federation that he attend the World Championships.

"Although Jaouad is not able to compete at his normal level at the marathon distance, he has been called up, not only by his federation, but by the general public in Morocco, to represent his country and to keep the team’s morale high,” said Eric Lilot, a member of Gharib’s management team.