Pregnant Radcliffe to miss European Championships
Posted Tuesday, 11 July, 2006
LONDON, July 11 - World marathon champion Paula Radcliffe will not defend her European 10,000 metres title in Sweden next month because she is expecting a baby in January.
"I'll continue training at the same level but I definitely will not be doing the European Athletics Championships," Briton Radcliffe said on the European Athletic Association (EAA) website.
"I'll be four months pregnant by then and do not want to take any risks. I won't compete in top level competitions but will run some low key races (this year).
"We'll see how it goes. However, first and foremost, it is important the baby is born healthy," added the 32-year-old.
Radcliffe, the marathon world record holder, announced her pregnancy in an interview with The Times newspaper on Tuesday.
The paper said Radcliffe, now 14 weeks pregnant, had the world championships in Osaka, Japan, in August 2007 in her sights for a comeback.
"What has surprised me most is that people ask if I will carry on competing," said Radcliffe in The Times.
"This is especially surprising as I have said I want to carry on until 2012 (the London Olympics). And this news means it is more likely, rather than less likely, that I will do that," she added.
Radcliffe will miss the year's remaining three major marathons -- Berlin in September, Chicago in October and New York in November.
She has not raced this year, missing the Commonwealth Games in March and April's London Marathon due to surgery on her right foot.
"My recent foot injury made me realise I was never going to decide to reach the Beijing Olympics (in 2008) and then give it up to have children, so we decided to give it a go," Radcliffe said.
"We are ready to be parents and if you are happy, you run better. I have been competing since 1991, so the rest will do me good and it probably won't do my body any harm to be challenged in a different direction.
"Mentally I will have fulfilled one of my life goals, so I will return more mature and with the wisdom that is part of being a mother," she told the newspaper.
Radcliffe can look to the example of Scotland's Liz McColgan, who won a bronze medal at the 1991 world cross country championships just four months after giving birth.
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