Radcliffe angry after Oregon fall
Posted Monday, 6 June, 2005
Paula Radcliffe was tripped up in a 1500m race at the Prefontaine Grand Prix Classic in Eugene before picking herself up to finish sixth.
Radcliffe, aiming to beat her personal best of four minutes 05.37seconds, which she set in her last 1500m race four years ago, ran a fast first lap.
But the pace slowed and the field bunched up on the second lap.
"I'm annoyed. The collision happened because everybody was watching each other instead of racing," she said.
The marathon star, running her first track race since dropping out of the Olympic 10,000m final, got up and completed the race in 4:13.13.
"Everything was going all right after a fast first lap. I thought I had missed it and would be all right, but then I found myself sprawling," she said.
"I immediately jumped up and started chasing the pack," said Radcliffe, who suffered minor bruising to both her knees and cuts on her hands.
She added: "I was on the inside of the track and was going to go into lane four to move up.
"I wish I had done that instead of waiting until the bend. Then it became a melee with everyone in front of me falling."
The crash saw half-a-dozen athletes fall over. One of those was pre-race favourite Tatyana Tomashova and the Russian took no further part in the race.
But Radcliffe quickly recovered and after losing around 30m, sprinted back to the pack.
The closing stages saw the dedicated milers pull away, Christin Wurth winning the race in a slow time of 4:09.45 ahead of fellow American Treniere Clement, who clocked 4:10.46, with Ethiopia's Mestawat Tadesse third in 4:10.83.
"I was hoping to get a pb here and if the conditions were right, possibly 4:03 or 4:04," said Radcliffe.
"This was my first chance for a long time to run a 1500m and I end up on the floor. I'm still kicking myself."
Story from BBC SPORT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport1/hi/athletics/4586345.stm
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