PAULA RADCLIFFE, Britain’s leading female athlete and the golden girl of her generation, is 14 weeks pregnant. The marathon world record-holder has chosen to make the announcement in an interview with The Times.

Radcliffe and her husband, Gary Lough, say their baby is due on January 6. Radcliffe expects to be competing again by spring of next year and has the World Championships, in Osaka, Japan, next August, firmly in her sights. She was tired during the 7-10 week stage — although that could have been because of a sinus problem — but feels much more energetic now and has not ruled out competing during pregnancy.

The 32-year-old is reluctantly prepared to give up eating goats’ cheese and remains open-minded about birth plans, but she is unequivocal about running. “What has surprised me most is that people ask if I will carry on competing,” she said. “This is especially surprising as I have said I want to carry on until 2012. And this news means it is more likely, rather than less likely, that I will do that. I want to get back running as soon as possible. I know I’ll miss it.

“We feel blessed and lucky it has worked out. Fertility studies make you worry and it would have been a blow not to have been able to conceive. I had thought I had better prepare myself in case it took me a long time.”

Radcliffe was three weeks away from competing in this year’s Flora London Marathon before she had to have surgery to remove a neuroma in her right foot. “My recent foot injury made me realise I was never going to decide to reach the Beijing Olympics (in 2008) and then give it up to have children, so we decided to give it a go. We are ready to be parents and if you are happy, you run better. I have been competing since 1991, so the rest will do me good and it probably won’ t do my body any harm to be challenged in a different direction. Mentally I will have fulfilled one of my life goals, so I will return more mature and with the wisdom that is part of being a mother.”

As a woman in the public eye, it was always going to be difficult for Radcliffe to keep her news secret. But an added complication for female athletes is that they have to declare a pregnancy if asked for a drugs test. Radcliffe was asked to provide a urine sample the day before her three-month scan and therefore had to declare her condition to testers at UK Sport earlier than she would have liked.

She is committed to clearing sport of drugs and supports regular and frequent testing, “so I was expecting to be tested and I’m happy to be tested at any point — the irony is that it was only after I had sat in on an athletics commission meeting last year that it became clear that pregnancy has to be declared”.

She remembers clearly her first drugs test at the age of 14. One of the first questions put to her was whether there was a chance she was pregnant. However, that question is not asked any more. Radcliffe hopes her news might help to alert female athletes of the regulations.

A close friend is Ingrid Kristiansen, who ran marathons after having children and has been sharing advice about training while pregnant. “Ingrid is really pleased for me personally and competitively,” Radcliffe said. “She has given me advice about my heart-rate and training and the big advice is that I must try to avoid overheating.”