Paula and Kelly put women ahead

"It can only help when, in the past, women might have wanted to run but were a little too self-conscious to get involved in the sport."

The pair have done their own thing down the years but thinking about how far they went back together in a British vest, Radcliffe recalled tougher times four years ago when she was struggling with a knee injury and Holmes's body appeared to be breaking up.

"A lot of times, we were both going over to see the same physio Ger Hartmann when Kelly was going through hell so it's really good that we're both on a high now," she said. Indeed, the Hollywood nature of their successes - Radcliffe's Athens agony, of course, has made her New York story even more fabulous box office - have only made them more impressive role models.

"That's good if it helps with the most important thing - getting kids involved in the sport," said Radcliffe.

Watching all the excitable fuss over the pair, though, was to be reminded of a not too distant era after the 1990 European Championships when the former British team manager, Joan Allison, fresh from watching the GB men scoop all the medals and the women being ignored, raged that our top female athletes were "being swept under the carpet".

Well, that feels like pre-history now. In a way, the Radcliffe/Holmes phenomenon - with Denise Lewis making it a famous triumvirate even though she does seem to be making more of an imprint with ballroom dancing than athletics these days - mirrors some of the encouraging developments which has marked this as the year of the woman in British athletics.

Whether it was fun runner Tracey Morris jogging out of a Leeds optician's into the Olympics - her London Marathon performance is credited by many clubs for an upsurge in new members - or Kelly Sotherton unexpectedly winning our only other individual Olympic medal in the heptathlon, or Christine Ohuruogu and Abi Oyepitan making dramatic sprint breakthroughs, the balance of power has shifted dramatically towards the women this year.

Yet if Radcliffe didn't sound surprised that she and Holmes might just be spearheading a revolution, perhaps it was because their neversaydie attitudes to this sport over this past decade have helped light the path.

"Why shouldn't it happen? There's as many women as men in this sport and I didn't see myself as a secondclass citizen when I came into the sport 10 years ago," remarked Radcliffe, while preparing to get the first-class treatment down at CBS.

Allison must be smiling to see the old carpet being rolled up and a red one being rolled out for the women.