NEW YORK (AFP) - Britain's Paula Radcliffe, trying to bounce back after her Athens Olympic dreams ended in tears, will return to competition here Sunday at the New York Marathon.
Radcliffe, with the fastest women's marathon time ever recorded, dropped out of the marathon and 10,000 metres at Athens.
She insisted that running here is not about redemption for her disappointment in Greece, but about her love of marathons.
"I've come to New York to win," Radcliffe said.
Radcliffe spent more than a month training in Flagstaff, Arizona, before announcing last week she would make her fifth career marathon start here.
Her first three marathons produced three of the four fastest marathons ever clocked and a trio of triumphs, including world bests in 2002 at Chicago and last year at London in a title defense.
Radcliffe's world-best mark of 2 hrs, 15 mins, 25 secs came April 13, 2003, at the London Marathon.
That mark is unlikely to be challenged here on a tougher course. Kenya's Margaret Okayo won in 2003 for the second time in three years in a course record of 2:22:31. Okayo also won at London this year.
A world-class field will test Radcliffe, including former New York champions Okayo and Tegla Loroupe of Kenya and Russian Ludmila Petrova, the 2000 winner.
Okayo won in 2001 and 2003. Loroupe, 31, won in 1994 and 1995 but has not run here since 2000.
Another contender could be Australian Benita Johnson, 25, who won the 8 km crown at the World Cross Country Championships last March. She struggled to an injury-hampered 24th place in the Athens 10,000m final.
American Deena Kastor, 31, captured a bronze medal in Athens and will also test Radcliffe over the 26-mile course winding through the streets of the "Big Apple", a finalist to host the 2012 Olympics.
Meb Keflezighi, second to Italy's Stefano Baldini at the Athens Games men's marathon, hopes to become the first American to win this race since Alberto Salazar in 1982 after taking first US men's marathon Olympic medal since 1976.
The Eritrean-born runner became a US citizen in 1998.
Frenchman Benoit Zwierzchiewski, who won the 2002 Paris Marathon in 2:08:18 and finished second last year, makes his New York debut after a sixth-place showing at the London Marathon.
Three Kenyans figure to be major factors in the race, including Christopher Cheboiboch, a 27-year-old grocery store owner who was second here in 2002 and third a year ago. He won the Leipzig Marathon earlier this year.
Elly Rono, who led after 20 miles last year but faded to fourth behind champion compatriot Martin Lel, hopes to be leading at the finish line this time.
And 2003 Paris Marathon winner Michael Rotich, who turned 22 last week, could improve upon his runner-up showing at Rotterdam from last April in his New York debut.
11/05/2004 - 18:39 GMT - AFP