Paula Radcliffe has pulled out of this year's London Marathon on 23 April with the same foot injury which forced her to miss the Commonwealth Games

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/4872362.stm

That's bad news...


It's also one in the eye for those peeps who said that she pulled out of the Commonwealth Games only to give herself a better chance at the top prize in the marathon.


I'm sure she'll be back at the start line of FLM next year

Sad she's out of the race.
If she is not 100% she may be vunerable as Deena Kastor ran 67.34 this weekend.

Yeah, this is a shame - was looking forward to seeing Paula run. Also noticed that Jon Brown withdrew his entry.

Still should be a interesting mens race though. Gebrselassie looks on good form.

Anyone think Gebrselassie is capable of running a world record time?

No. They will race. Tergat will win!

Look you guys,

Our American friends think they have it all sewn up with Ryan Hall. He's unknown in Europe and has little pressure and expectation heeped upon him.

Beware of the stalking horse!!!!
:eek: :eek: :eek:

Quotes from running times forum

Holy cow! Ryan Hall ran 59:43 to win the Houston Half Marathon this morning. If that time stands and is verified, that's a new AR and he's the first American ever under 1 hour. That's 4:33 pace. His first 10K split was 28:21!

Hall's time is really amazing. Take a look at these splits:

14:05 (5k)
28:21 (10k)
42:21 (15k)
45:33 (10 miles)

Can you imagine running a 28:21 10k, then running almost 7 more miles at around 4:33 pace?!?! It will be very interesting to see what happens if he decides to run a spring marathon.


Just listed on the IAAF site

'Hall has announced that he was looking to make his Marathon debut in the spring to gain experience ahead of the U.S. Olympic Marathon trials to be held as part of the ING New York City Marathon in November.

“We are delighted that Ryan has chosen the Flora London Marathon to make his debut at the distance,” said London race director David Bedford. “Ryan has shown that he is a very exciting talent in superb form and he will be a valuable addition to the illustrious elite field we earlier announced in January.”

“It’s going to be really hard and I’m expecting it to be more challenging than anything I’ve ever done,” said Hall of his first marathon experience. “I’m just going to go out there and stick my nose in it.”

Hall has been in highly impressive form recently. He set a U.S. record of 57:54 for 20km when he finished 11th at the inaugural IAAF World Road Running Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, in October 2006, and in February he will defend his national 12Km Cross Country title which he won last year by 27 seconds.

Hall was the U.S. college champion at 5000m in 2005 and won a place on the USA team for the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki that year by finishing third at the national championships. He was a U.S. high school Mile champion while at school in Big Bear, California, and ran the third fastest ever 1500m by a U.S. high school student.

This year's high calibre London field includes Haile Gebrselassie, World record holder Paul Tergat, two-time World champion Jaouad Gharib, and Olympic champion Stefano Baldini.'

Nicola Okey for the IAAF


My gut feeling is that Hall has more to prove than the others, some of which are there just for the money!


Sherwood

In the absence of Paula this year does anyone know who's likely to be top placed Brit?

This is last years thread... is she not running this year either?

I know she's just had a baby but she has been training all through the pregnancy

I know...I wanted to remove reference to the last post being that of coachsherwood.

I don't think she is running this year's event but has plans for an autumn marathon.

ok, with Paula out of the comp there's a chance for me to take the trophy then




...I wish!

Obviously I expect you to feature at the head of the race if you run in character!

If I run in character I'd be forever looking out for agents

provocateur?