• Athletics

Radcliffe meets IAAF in fight to keep world record

ESPN staff
October 13, 2011
Paula Radcliffe is fighting the IAAF's decision to strip her of her world record © Getty Images
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Paula Radcliffe will meet with the head of world athletics as she steps up her campaign to have her world record reinstated.

Radcliffe, who remains the marathon world record holder, albeit with a slower time after her 2003 mark was invalidated on account of being aided by two male pacemakers, will meet with International Association of Athletics Federations president Lamine Diack on Thursday to argue her case.

Radcliffe's time of two hours, 15 minutes and 25 seconds at the 2003 London Marathon smashed the existing record, but it will be downgraded to a "world best" after the IAAF changed the criteria, meaning Radcliffe's mark no longer stands as a world record because it was run in a mixed environment.

Radcliffe, who made her comeback at the Berlin Marathon last month, securing qualification for London 2012 in the process, believes the new ruling is "messy" and "unfair" and is leading the campaign to convince the IAAF to reconsider its stance.

"I think it is a decision that is going to be hard to fully enforce," she said recently. "Look at how many national and area records are set in mixed races. I also think it is a little unfair. If they were going to make that rule, it should have been so from the beginning when world records came in on the roads. Now it is messy."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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