Paula's tears at failure

Hugh Dougherty|Paul Sims|Evening Standard

14 April 2012

Paula Radcliffe broke down in tears today as she spoke for the first time of the moment her Olympic dream turned into a nightmare.

Wiping her eyes, the 30-year-old British marathon runner, her voice trembling, said she had let the nation down at a time when it had expected so much.

"I'm hurting inside for myself so much," she said. "I just feel I have let everybody down. People deserve an explanation or as much as I can give but I don't have one for myself at the moment."

She said she was "desperately trying to find a reason to explain what happened" following her sensational withdrawal from the race in the baking heat of Athens last night. "I can't look to the conditions as an excuse because it was the same for everyone," she said. "I still had six kilometres to go and I just did not think I could make it.

"I think I knew that I was going backwards and I was out of the medals. Maybe that was another kick in the stomach. I set off okay, I didn't feel too bad, I didn't feel the conditions were excessively bothering me heatwise or at the beginning of the hills.

"But after 15-20 kilometres there was nothing in my legs. In the end I was struggling to stay on the road. Since then I feel numb and I'm desperately trying to find a reason to explain what happened." She added: "It was something I have worked for for so long and that's the one thing I have been aiming for.

"A little bit of a bad day I could have got away with but this was such a bad day. I had prepared for those conditions.

"I just don't know what happened because it wasn't something I had ever rehearsed or planned. I didn't know what to do. It was so hard."

Radcliffe, who was consoled at the side of the road by two British supporters, said once she had stopped she could not find the strength to carry on - not even to walk to the finish line.

"At that stage my legs had gone."

She is now expected to take the next few days to decide on whether to compete in the 10,000 metres.

"My plan was to come here, to run the marathon, to win the marathon and then to decide after that. It's not a decision I'm going to take in the next 24 hours.

"Physically, this morning I felt fine. My legs feel like they have run as hard as they could and a lot harder than they did

yesterday. Mentally, I'm just trying to pick up the pieces now and find out what happened. It's really difficult. I'm still waiting for the test results they have done."

At the weekend Mr Bryant asked: "Why Craig Doyle? Is this just because he is the best-looking man the BBC could come up with?" And viewers have protested that the sailing coverage, fronted by Perry, has been "shockingly poor ... brief ".

The BBC has said it wanted to widen the appeal of the Olympics and the unofficial overnight ratings show the nation's appetite for the event is as hearty as ever.

Between 6.15 and 6.30pm 10.7 million viewers in Britain - a 60 per cent audience share - were glued to BBC1's live coverage.

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Paula's tears at failure

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