WHILE sportsmen and women the length and breadth of Britain wonder whether the rain will deny them their pitches and courses this weekend, the Great North Cross Country in Newcastle has the reverse problem — the event goes ahead but the competitors are falling thick and fast. Paula Radcliffe phoned in sick yesterday to complete a full set of withdrawals among the three leading ladies.

Radcliffe will delay a decision on whether to defend her world cross-country title in Lausanne in March after pulling out of her first scheduled race since she broke the women’s marathon world record because of what was described as a “bacterial infection”. Radcliffe’s infection is Peter Elliott’s headache.

Elliott, the 1990 Commonwealth Games 1,500 metres champion and now the Great North elite field co-ordinator, was informed on Christmas Eve that Gete Wami, a former world champion, had withdrawn. One Wami became a double whammy as, four days later, another former world champion, Derartu Tulu, dropped out. The loss of the Ethiopians was bad enough but worse was to follow.

Radcliffe, although her training has been up to scratch, has been feeling poorly during sessions and blood tests revealed an infection. She ran 17 miles on Christmas Day and, according to Gary Lough, her husband and manager, she has withdrawn more to aid a speedy recovery than because of any serious difficulty. “It is only a blip,” Lough said.

The intention remains to travel to Albuquerque, New Mexico, on January 13 for altitude training. Radcliffe’s first race of the year is now likely to be in the United States and her decision on whether to try for a third successive world cross-country title will come after that. “The only thing that will be missing from Paula’s schedule will be this weekend’s race,” Lough said.

Radcliffe’s run of success in 2002 began with the retention of her world cross-country title, followed by victories in the London Marathon, Commonwealth Games 5,000 metres and European Championships 10,000 metres, and culminated in a marathon world record in Chicago in October. Although she is to defend her London Marathon title in April, whether she goes to Lausanne first remains open to question.

“We will make a decision on that once we get away and assess where she feels she is,” Lough said. “The event this weekend was important to her but it is not worth risking everything for. She was still able to get the work done in training but we knew there was something wrong because she felt bad.”

Elliott felt his work was starting over yesterday as, instead of travelling to Newcastle to welcome those athletes who had not cried off, he was at home in Rotherham trying to sign replacement women. Although Edith Masai, the short-course world cross-country champion, from Kenya, remained in the line-up, Elliott admitted that he was feeling the strain.

The BBC is scheduled to show 80 minutes of racing on Grandstand and Elliott said: “You are bound to find it stressful because you are trying to put on a high-profile event that is going to be covered by television and you have to answer to sponsors. The biggest problem is that the best replacement athletes are from countries that need visas.”

Elliott was referring mainly to the Africans and he was hopeful last night that Worknesh Kidane, the world short-course runner-up last year, would plug one gap. She has a visa but a flight from Ethiopia at short notice was the sticking point. At least Kenenisa Bekele, who won long and short-course world titles last year, arrived safely. Radcliffe may be missing but the 20-year-old Ethiopian they call the new Haile Gebrselassie should be worth watching.