Ireland's Sonia O'Sullivan finished in third place in this morning's Nike London 10 kilometres race in Richmond Park, finishing behind winner Paula Radcliffe who continued her superb year by breaking the British record. Radcliffe covered a very tough course in a time of 30 minutes 38 seconds, with O'Sullivan a long way back in third in a time of 33.47, with South Africa's former Olympic 10,000 metre silver medalist Elana Meyer claiming second spot in a time of 32.40.
O'Sullivan, recently-crowned world 10-mile record-holder, was due to fly to New York immediately after the race to announce her participation in the marathon there on November 3 and treated the event preparation for that event.
Radcliffe's record time struck a second from the previous best achieved by Liz McColgan in Orlando 13 years ago. Radcliffe admitted afterwards: "I feel so sick. I thought I had lost it between five and six kilometres but at eight I was back on course. It was a very hard course but it was more the wind than anything else that slowed me. After the first fast five kilometres the next took me three minutes 23 seconds and I had to fight really hard to get back on schedule."
The men's race was won by Paul Kosgei, Kenya's world half marathon gold medallist, who crossed the line in 28 minutes 23 seconds.
Filed by Shane Murray
