Radcliffe makes a spectacular comeback

ATHLETICS/New York Marathon:New York was anticipating a sensational weekend for marathon running, and that's what it got - in more ways than one. Britain's Paula Radcliffe marked her comeback to the distance yesterday with a spectacular victory in New York's great event, surviving an epic battle with Ethiopia's Gete Wami that lasted practically the entire 26.2 miles.

The men's race proved just as close as Kenya's Martin Lel outsprinted Abderrahim Goumri of Morocco inside the last mile, repeating his win of 2003, while Saturday's US Olympic trials for men produced one of the best performances ever by an American when 24-year-old Ryan Hall booked his Beijing spot with incredible ease.

All three races, however, were overshadowed by the tragedy of Ryan Shay, one of the US trials favourites, who collapsed just five miles into the race and was pronounced dead shortly afterwards. Shay was one of America's most popular distance runners and a former US marathon champion, and his sudden death at just 28 put all three victories into perspective.

Radcliffe's thoughts turned to Shay shortly after her victory, her time of 2:23:09 exactly one second quicker than her previous New York win in 2004: "That really does put things into perspective. This is just sport, but that's a real tragedy. And my thoughts are with his friends and family."

It would have been something of a sporting tragedy had Radcliffe lost her race, as she did all the front-running from the starting gun. Only Wami, at 32 exactly one year younger, went with her, and they ran through the five boroughs together, the Ethiopian a like constant shadow on Radcliffe.

Into mile 23 it appeared Wami had finally cracked as Radcliffe opened a 25-metre gap; but that was closed again down Fifth Avenue. As they turned into Central Park, again Radcliffe edged clear, and at last the race appeared over. Yet once more Wami closed and, amazingly, then spurted in front for the first time with just 600 metres remaining.

That lasted all of three seconds, as Radcliffe regained her composure, and counter-surged - this time all the way to the finish line, which she reached a full 23 seconds before Wami. It was a typically courageous run from Radcliffe in what was her first marathon in over two years, and just eight months after giving birth to daughter Isla. She thus secured her qualifying time for Beijing and, for the record, has now won seven of her eight marathons - the only defeat being the DNF in the Athens Olympics.

Radcliffe claimed the top prize of €90,000 - plus a Toyota car - while Wami earned herself €60,000 for second, to top off the €500,000 she gets for winning the World Marathon Majors series, which takes the best finishes from London, New York, Boston, Berlin and Chicago from the past two years.

Meanwhile, Joe Sweeney claimed the Dublin senior cross-country title in Santry yesterday - part of a truly dominating afternoon for Dundrum South Dublin (DSD).

Sweeney took the senior men's title ahead of his clubmate Alan McCormack, while the women's race was also a one-two for DSD as Charlotte Ffrench-O'Carroll led home Linda Byrne.

Alan O'Shea won the Cork cross-country title on Saturday from Cathal Lombard, the former drugs cheat who admitted to EPO-abuse before the Athens Olympics.