But it is nice to be the first Britain again
But it is nice to be the first Britain again."He finished ahead of Belgium's European 10,000m silver medallist Vincent Rousseau, and Britain's John Nuttall. Rob Denmark, who has been running 120 miles a week of late, faded but then recovered to take a creditable seventh place.. FOR a club who have waxed lyrical over the past few years about the quality of young rugby league players emerging at Headingley, it is ironic that so much of Leeds's hopes for the semi-final of the Regal Trophy against Wigan on Saturday will hinge on a 30-year-old with a wonky shoulder and a recently repaired hamstring. After the empty months, Radcliffe is living her life to the full again.The snowy conditions may also have reminded Kenya's John Ngugi of Boston 1992, where he collected a record fifth world cross-country title, but he did not look as comfortable in them yesterday. The 33-year-old is still making his comeback after being allowed to return to competition early following a controversial four-year ban for refusing a drug test.
"I don't have any inhibitions, whereas a lot of people get tensed up."She will race sparingly from now on before sitting the first half of her final exams for a degree in European Studies at Loughborough University. The other half fall a couple of weeks before the Olympic trials. By the finish she was 22 seconds clear.The conditions were similar to those in which she won the world junior title in Boston in 1992 "I'm not scared of the snow," she said. Indeed, she had run with the trace of a smile for much of the race after breaking clear of her nearest challenger, Morocco's world 5,000m bronze medallist Zhara Oaziz, with 1,200 of the 5,550 metres gone."I planned to work hard on the final lap, but I got settled into a pace which I felt comfortable with." She added with a further laugh, "I was just enjoying it."The exercise did seem wonderfully simple as she ran away from a field that also included Gete Wami, of Ethiopia, fifth in this year's world championships, driving up the hills and bobbing her head in characteristic fashion. "He just rang me up." She grinned at the recollection of that presumably well-meant gesture.
At that stage she was still making up training time after a year's absence with a foot injury, which may or may not have been a stress fracture. With increasing desperation, she consulted around 10 specialists during her time out. Only 16 months ago, one physiotherapist advised her that she would never run again without pain."I didn't go to see him," she said. PAULA RADCLIFFE reaffirmed her status as a world-class performer here yesterday as she won the Bupa International Cross-country Challenge with exuberant ease. The 22-year-old Bedford runner can now approach the world championships in Cape Town three months hence, and the Olympics next summer, as much in expectation as hope. Hers was one of two outstanding displays on a bone-hard Aykley Heads course dusted with snow and with a view clear over the city to the cathedral. There comes a time in the affairs of cricketers, however, when they might like to go out and seek to make something positive happen and Cape Town later this week might be a good place to start.It is probably better for the general health of English cricket that their travels round the world are no longer, for this winter at least, a round of whacking defeats interspersed with the odd spectacular victory.As the England chairman, Ray Illingworth, said yesterday: "You have to play pretty well to be boring." But whereas 250 runs in 50 overs is around par for the limited-over course, when England at one stage yesterday needed 248 to win in 62 overs, it was not only not on but not even contemplated..