WILL PAULA RUN?
The Olympic rumour mill is abuzz with contradictory claims over whether Paula Radcliffe will run in Friday's 10,000m.
The Mirror insists she will but the Guardian disagrees. It says she hasn't recovered fully from her traumatic marathon experience.
But Radcliffe has been out training this morning -- and despite what the Guardian says, our spies claim her parents are still in Greece and aren't planning to return home just yet, increasing the possibility that she'll compete.
After seeing her tearful, broken interviews on Monday, I thought there was no way Radcliffe could recover emotionally in time to take part in Friday's race. Now I'm not sure -- although my gut feeling is that she still hasn't decided herself.
Whatever the outcome, she certainly hasn't won the admiration of the Telegraph's Robert Philip.
In a blistering column, he blows away the "Poor Paula" headlines that have filled the British papers:
The Olympic rumour mill is abuzz with contradictory claims over whether Paula Radcliffe will run in Friday's 10,000m.
The Mirror insists she will but the Guardian disagrees. It says she hasn't recovered fully from her traumatic marathon experience.
But Radcliffe has been out training this morning -- and despite what the Guardian says, our spies claim her parents are still in Greece and aren't planning to return home just yet, increasing the possibility that she'll compete.
After seeing her tearful, broken interviews on Monday, I thought there was no way Radcliffe could recover emotionally in time to take part in Friday's race. Now I'm not sure -- although my gut feeling is that she still hasn't decided herself.
Whatever the outcome, she certainly hasn't won the admiration of the Telegraph's Robert Philip.
In a blistering column, he blows away the "Poor Paula" headlines that have filled the British papers:
"The Tears of a Hero proclaimed one headline alongside a picture of Paula Radcliffe. Well, if it's heroes you want, then I'll give you heroes: Japan's Mizuki Noguchi, who won the Olympic marathon, was a hero. So, too, was Briton Liz Yelling, who produced a late sprint to overtake Maria Abel, of Spain, in a photo-finish for 25th place.
"Call me a cynic, but the way I see it is that unless the medics in Athens can come up with a physical reason why she quit just over three miles from the finish, Radcliffe stopped running and started bubbling for the simple reason that she had just seen gold, silver and bronze medals disappear into the distance."
posted by Stuart at 11:00
2 Comments:
I do feel sorry for Paula of course, but some of the carry-on by the media, including the BBC, has been ridiculous. These aren't the Paula Games and making that story the lead on the BBC News website at one stage, ahead of Najaf was an appalling decision. I expected it from Sky News, not the BBC.
Niall (Ireland)
Its the taking part that matters...yeah sure right!
It may have been in the early days of the olympics but nowadays its all about winning and Robert Philip knows that.
A world class athlete like Radcliffe sets out to win and the media and public expects them to win.
Who remembers Atlanta when the British team didn't do so well? The media storm was all bout the failure of British sports.
When Radcliffe saw her medal chances were slipping away it may have been that the pyschological blow was so much her body packed in. Whatever the reasons its was up to her to make the decision not the public
Personally I don't know and I expect even Radcliffe can only guess herself why her body stopped.
But the psychological preparation for an athelete is just as important as the physical preparation and critics like Philips should remember that.
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