Khannouchi, Radcliffe make
history in London

Spectacular victories, in contrasting styles, by Khalid Khannouchi and Paula Radcliffe on Sunday enshrined the 22nd London marathon as the greatest non-championship race staged over 42.195 kms.

Moroccan-born American Khannouchi out-sprinted Paul Tergat and Haile Gebrselassie to lower his own world record by four seconds to two hours five minutes 38 seconds.

The trio had been tightly bunched until the final three kms when Gebrselassie, running his first serious marathon, dropped off the pace.

Twenty-five minutes earlier Britain's Radcliffe clocked an astonishing 2:18:56 in her marathon debut. Only Kenyan Catherine Ndereba, running with men in last year's Chicago race, has run faster.

After signing five-times cross country champion Tergat for last year's event, race director Dave Bedford pulled off a major coup by enticing Gebrselassie, holder of 15 track distance records and two Olympic 10,000 metres titles, to enter this year's race.

The announcement galvanised his rivals, especially when the Ethiopian asked for an audacious opening half of 63 minutes 30 seconds, well under world record pace.

Several openly questioned his ability to sustain the pace in his first marathon since a light-hearted race at the age of 15.

IDEAL CONDITIONS

On Sunday the leading bunch went through the halfway stage in 62 minutes 47 seconds in ideal conditions for marathon running with cool temperatures and little wind.

They remained on world record pace until the 30 kms mark when Gebreslassie, Tergat and Khannouchi were able to break.

Khannouchi, who had concentrated all his attentions on London after he was forced to drop out of last year's world championships with breathing problems, showed his experience and strength over the closing stages on a course which has never been conducive to fast times.

He kissed the ground after crossing the finish line, elated at his world record and also with beating two of the men he had idolised when he had been struggling to make his way in New York after moving to the United States nine years ago.

The 30-year-old American had been one of the competitors who had questioned Gebrselassie's ability to sustain his requested opening pace throughout the race.

"I was trying to do my own race," he told a news conference. "But I was running easily and I saw all the big guys were there. So I thought 'if you are going to win it, you are going to have to be there'.

"I changed my mind in the middle of the race and thought I would have to go with the group. But it was very comfortable, it wasn't so bad."

TRIBUTE

He paid tribute to Tergat and Gebrselassie, who both set national records with 2:05:48 and 2:06:35 respectively.

"It was something special," he said, motioning with his hand towards Tergat and Gebrselassie. "They said 'whoever wins here is the greatest'. I don't want to call it that way. "

Radcliffe has endured shattering disappointments on the track, finishing fourth in both the 2000 Sydney Olympic and 2001 world championship 10,000 metres finals. Both races were won by the defending London champion Derartu Tulu, who finished ninth on Sunday.

But she is a different proposition on the road, as she has shown in winning consecutive world half-marathon titles, and on Sunday she took the lead from the start, moving clear of the field at 11 kms and up to the shoulder of Kenyan pacemaker Iness Chenonge at 14.

Radcliffe passed the halfway stage in one hour 11 minutes four seconds, 83 seconds ahead of second-placed Kenyan Susan Chepkemei and relentlessly increased her pace, clocking 16 minutes for the next five kms, the fastest ever run at that stage in a women's race.

After that paralysing burst, it was only a matter of holding on, which Radcliffe, cheered on by the crowds thronging the streets of the capital, did, finishing more than 3-1/2 minutes ahead of Russian Svetlana Zakharaova, who was also second last year before taking the world championships bronze medal.

Radcliffe confessed she had felt uneasy about taking the lead so early in a race she had never run before.

"When I came off Tower Bridge I felt a little bit worried," she said. "I thought here if I blow up I'm really going to be slated (criticised). But I felt controlled and the crowd from there on was great.

"I didn't know I was on world record time, I didn't know I was actually so close to the world record."