After skirting the water front of Menkannonue, Radcliffe led them through 10km in 33:23. Her 10k split during her world record run in London in 2003 was 30:54, so here she seemed to be running well within herself. The chasing group – now down to five – was still three seconds adrift, while another Kenyan, former London and New York marathon winner Tegla Loroupe, was in a third group another 24 seconds back.

As the runners would through the park surrounding the Olympic stadium for the first time Radcliffe maintained her steady pace. After 14km Tomescu made an effort to join the group and soon Radcliffe had three on her tail.

Appearing to sense the danger she upped the tempo to take them through 15km in 49:54. Tomescu, looking stronger and stronger, moved alongside the Briton. She is known as a front runner but until winning last year’s Chicago marathon had tended to fade in the closing stages. Now she was actually forcing the pace. It was too much for Gigi, who dropped back to be caught by the Kenyans as Tomescu and Radcliffe ran stride for stride.

The Romanian broke her national record when finishing second to Radcliffe in this year’s London marathon but she’d never run at this pace before. Gradually it began to tell as Radcliffe wound up the pace again leading through 20km in 1:06:16. By now Ndereba had dragged Kimutai back to Tomescu as Radcliffe pushed on again to lead by 10 metres at the half way mark – 1:09:50 – her gradual increase in pace meaning she was now on course for a sub-2:20 time.

At this point the Kenyans still looked fresh while Tomescu appeared out of it. Incredibly, just five minutes later she recovered, striding back past the Kenyans and on to Radcliffe’s shoulder. For the Briton, being caught once is rare, being caught twice unthinkable. She’d put in her fastest efforts of the race and still the Romanian had clawed her way back.

Together again, they strode over the blue 25km mat in 1:22:48 with Ndereba now alone in third place. Further down the field the fast race was taking its toll with a gap of nearly three minutes to tenth place.

Suddenly, after just under 90 minutes of running, Radcliffe kicked again up a small incline. Tomescu, who had been checking her watch regularly as if late for an appointment, immediately fell behind. Surely she couldn’t come back a second time.

Radcliffe, now in familiar nodding style, had finally killed off her challengers. The gap to Kimutai in fourth was more than a minute as she passed 30k in 1:39:22, nearly three minutes outside her world record pace but 11 seconds ahead of Tomescu and 16 clear of Ndereba who caught the Romanian for the second time shortly afterwards.

Radcliffe was now in wholly familiar territory and, as the sun broke out for the first time in the day, drying the Helsinki cobbles, she slowly extended her lead. She was 28 seconds ahead of Ndereba at 35km and 45 ahead of Tomescu.

All of them were suffering though – the last 5km had been the slowest at 16:53 – and after two hours the strain began to show in Radcliffe’s face and neck. Perhaps that 10,000m final she ran a week ago was beginning to have an effect. Luckily, Ndereba was struggling too and all Radcliffe had to do was hold it together over the final section of the 10km loop and into the stadium.

She was slowing (the 5km to 40km was 17:06) but not enough to lose. Grimacing hard, she dug deep to climb the last small hill lined with crowds and sweep into the stadium. Only a smattering of fans had made their way there to greet her but many of them held British flags.

Twelve months ago she was left in tears beside the Marathon to Athens course, stricken by stomach problems and hampered by injury. This year she crossed the line in bright sunshine, a broad grin finally breaking out after 42km of incessant, grinding pace.

She finished just as Ndereba entered the stadium, stopping the clock at 2:20:57, a championships record by nearly three minutes and just over two minutes quicker than Emil Zatopek ran to win the marathon here at the 1952 Olympic Games. When Norway’s Grete Waitz won here at the inaugural world championships 22 years ago she was more than seven minutes slower.

“At the last water station someone said you’re 50 seconds up, just enjoy, it,” said Radclifffe. “A big ‘kiitos’ to the Finnish crowd that supported me through the whole race.”

Behind Ndereba, Tulu was closing fast on Tomescu making up nearly two miniutes in the last five kilometres to miss a medal by just 11 seconds. Radcliffe applauded them home before setting off on her long-awaited lap of honour, a world champion at last.

Helsinki2005 news team/mb/14 Aug

Women's Marathon Results - Sunday, August 15, 2005 : click here

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