PAULA RADCLIFFE is planning to run in the 10,000 metres and the marathon at the Athens Olympic Games next year in an attempt to secure an ambitious double. However, Radcliffe, who set a world record for ten kilometres in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the weekend, will compete in both races only if the marathon is run after the 10,000 metres.

“I couldn’t run a 10,000 metres if the marathon came first in the schedule,” she said. “You can’t run anything after the marathon. But it looks as if the women’s marathon will be on the last day. It also looks as if there won’t be any qualifying heats to run for the 10,000 metres (so) I could do it.”

If Radcliffe, 29, does manage to win gold in both events, it would place her alongside Emil Zatopek, the Czech who achieved the feat at the Helsinki Games in 1952. Radcliffe will make a decision on whether to run in both races after a fact-finding trip to Athens later this year.

Organisers of the Flora London Marathon are considering introducing a mixed race for the elite field so that male pacemakers can help Radcliffe to break the world record of 2hr 17min 18sec that she set in Chicago in October.

Dave Bedford, the event’s international race director, intimated that a change was on the cards, saying: “We will have internal conversations about this issue. There will be a board meeting on Wednesday of next week and our position will then be clarified.”

Radcliffe said: “I would be perfectly happy if they changed the format. It would be helpful. The men have pacemakers for their race, but there aren’t any women available or willing to run at the pace I want to go.”