Athletics News: Paula Radcliffe has been reassured she remains on course to win the Olympic marathon in Athens this summer by Lornah Kiplagat, the woman who ended her long unbeaten record here in Puerto Rico.

The Kenyan, now representing the Netherlands, beat Radcliffe by four seconds in the World's Best 10 kilometres on Sunday after pulling away approaching the finish.

"There are so many people with a lot of chances to win the marathon in Athens," said Kiplagat. "But if Paula runs the way she is running now I think she will win."

Radcliffe's time of 30 minutes 45 seconds was 24 seconds outside the world record she set in the corresponding event last year, but Kiplagat reckoned that both she and the Briton would have been the first female runners in history to have gone under 30 minutes had it not been for the high winds and rain.

"In better conditions I think we would have broken the world record," said Kiplagat. "The weather conditions could have been worth as much as a minute."

Radcliffe (30), and Kiplagat had both nearly pulled out of the race because they were suffering from a virus. But Kiplagat clearly recovered better than Radcliffe, who said she "felt flat" in the second half of the race in what was her first defeat in an individual event since July 2002.

"If I can run well when I'm not right it's good," said Radcliffe. "But even if you are a few per cent off you can't expect to beat people like Lornah when they are in shape. I was arrogant enough to think I could get away with it."

Radcliffe, whose form towards the end of last year was affected by a magnesium deficiency, has abandoned plans to resume training at altitude in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and instead will return to her Loughborough home to prepare for the World Cross Country championships in Brussels this month.

Ireland will be represented in the long-course event by Catherina McKiernan, Rosemary Ryan, Jolene Byrne, Pauline Curley, Fionnuala Britton and Niamh O'Sullivan.

Radcliffe, the World Cross Country champion in 2001 and 2002, wants to run in both the long- and short-course races in the Belgian capital on March 20-21st. There she will have a rematch with Kiplagat, who is also planning to run both events.

"I expected to win here," said Kiplagat. "Most of the time when we met before I was not in the right shape. There was no perfect time because when I was in shape during the summer we didn't meet. This was the right time."

Kiplagat earned $30,000 for her victory and plans to invest much of that to help fund a centre in Kenya to nurture the development of young East African female athletes.

Housing up to 12 runners, the centre pays for room and board and travel expenses to local races, a stepping stone in the path to international glory for many promising runners.

The 29-year-old Kiplagat said she had founded the centre in Iten because there is not the same level of support in Kenya for the women as there is for male runners, who are provided for by the military and by public companies such as the post office.

Kiplagat's camp has faced opposition from the Kenyan athletic federation, and that, coupled with the fact her husband is Dutch, helped persuade her to make the switch to the Netherlands last summer.

In her first race in an orange vest she finished fourth in the 10,000 metres in the World Championships in Paris. That is the distance she plans to run in Athens despite having won four of her 12 marathons. Radcliffe, for one, will be grateful for that.

Guardian Service