In 2002, long-distance runner Paula Radcliffe comfortably justified favouritism to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, finishing some way ahead of footballer David Beckham, jockey Tony McCoy, boxer Lennox Lewis and rugby union player Jonny Wilkinson in the public phone poll. In so doing, she became to first woman since middle-distance runner Liz McColgan, in 1991, to be presented with the coveted trophy.
Indeed, 2002 was the year in which Radcliffe shed finally her “always the bridesmaid” tag to become an out-and-out champion. In March, she won the senior women’s race at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Dublin, thereby becoming the first woman in a decade to successfully defend her title. In July, she won the gold medal in the women’s 5,000 metres at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester and, in August, another in the women’s 10,000 metres at the European Athletics Championhips in Munich.
On the road, in April, Radcliffe attempted the London Marathon for the first time, winning in a time of 2:18:56, world record for a women’s only race amd just nine seconds outside the overall world record. In October, on just her second attempt over 26 miles and 385 yards, she won the Chicago Marathon in a time of 2:17:56, beating the previous world record, held by Kenyan Catherine Ndereba, who finished second, by nearly a minute and a half.
Reflecting on her annus mirabilis, Radcliffe, 28, said, “My training for the London Marathon proved very significant and was the springboard to my whole year. It gave me the physical strength to go on and achieve everything else, and that is why I shall be defending my title.” That she did, in no uncertain terms. On April 13, 2003, she won the London Marathon for a second time, improving her own world record by over two minutes with a time of 2:15:25, which would stand for 16 years, until broken by another Kenyan, Brigid Kosgei, with a time of 2:14:04, in the Chicago Marathon on October 13, 2019. Of course, Radcliffe would win the London Marathon for a third time in 2005.