The 2008 edition of the New York Marathon marked a significant milestone in the brilliant career of British distance running great Paula Radcliffe.
Steve Jones is the last British male winner of the New York City Marathon, finishing first in 1988, while Paula Radcliffe completed a hat-trick in the women’s race 20 years later.
It has sunk AW: Archives show November 2, 2008 as the last time the former world record holder and world champion won a major marathon. Winning in New York in 2004 and 2007, he took three victories in emphatic style.
AW archive 2008
As Jason Henderson wrote AW: at that time. “Charging towards the finish line at the Green Tavern on the west side of Central Park, the Briton took a nearly two-minute lead.
“It was remarkable given the fact that less than three months ago he cut a shabby figure in Beijing, limping painfully to a disappointing 23rd place in the Olympic marathon.
“Every time Radcliffe comes to the Big Apple, he seems to bite off more than he can chew. Each time she proves her doubters wrong and shows that she is still the No. 1 female marathoner in the world.”
As he had done four years earlier, Radcliffe used New York to bounce back from an Olympic disappointment. The race fell just 11 weeks after Beijing, but he trained in China just five days after that stroke and warmed up for New York with a British 10-mile record at Portsmouth.
AW archive 2008
In cold, windy conditions, like AW: “Did a real demolition job on its competitors with a 2:23:56 boot time.”
Radcliffe said: “I knew I was missing, but I didn’t know I had two minutes. Was I tempted to look back? No. It’s something that was ingrained in me from an early age. My father used to say ‘never look back’ because that’s a sign of weakness.”
However, it wasn’t the last time he ran through the city’s streets, as he ran the marathon again in 2009, finishing fourth in 2:29:27.
Earlier that year, he also won gold in the New York City Half Marathon in 69:45, just two seconds off the county record.
Paula Radcliffe (Getty)
This year’s New York Marathon took place on November 2, as Kenya’s Sheila Chepkirui won the women’s title, finishing in 2:24:35 – 39 seconds slower than Radcliffe’s 2008 run.
To celebrate the 20-year anniversary, you can find our original coverage of all three of Paula Radcliffe’s NYC Marathon victories: Athletics Weekly Archive.
(From the first issue in December 1945 to the present, current subscribers to our magazine can access this resource for free, while non-subscribers can pay just £399 a month.full access.
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