Paula Radcliffe pocketed £3,000 for breaking a bizarre British two-mile record at Loughborough's international meeting yesterday.

In cold and windy conditions, Radcliffe produced a rock-like performance, covering the eight laps in nine minutes 31.07 seconds. That bettered Sarah Young's previous best of 9:49.62 when she was the runner-up to Sonia O'Sullivan in her world record run of 9:19.56 in Cork last summer.

There was confusion about which British time Radcliffe was chasing. The programme cited the 9:36.85 Yvonne Murray ran in 1987, although that was at an indoor meeting. Fortunately, Radcliffe beat both performances after running the final three laps alone.

Radcliffe said: "I have to be happy."