Paula Radcliffe won the ING New York City Marathon today, defeating Ethiopia's Gete Wami in an exciting finish to maintain her unbeaten record over the distance.

The 33-year-old, who gave birth to her daughter Isla in January, clocked 2hr 23min 9sec, beating Wami by 23 seconds. Jelena Prokopcuka, the defending champion finished third in 2hr 26min 13sec.

The Briton picked up a winners' cheque for more than £62,000, 26 months after her last marathon, at the World Championships in Helsinki. In beating Prokopcuka, Wami picked up around £240,000 as the first winner of the World Marathon Majors Series.

Radcliffe had led the entire race with Wami in her shadow just 35 days after the Ethiopian had won the Berlin Marathon. The Briton headed straight to the front on the mile-long climb to the crest of the Verrazano Bridge that took the race from Staten Island to Brooklyn.

Wami followed her as did Prokopcuka, although the Latvian soon dropped off the pace as Radcliffe appeared to be on pace for a 2hr 20min time. The top three stayed that way through Brooklyn and Queens, with Radcliffe and Wami stretching their lead as the former paced out mile splits of between 5min 18sec and 5min 31sec.

By the time the pair turned onto the Queensborough Bridge that would take them into Manhattan, Radcliffe and Wami had opened up a lead of 2min 40sec from three athletes competing for third, Prokopcuka, Lidiya Grigoryeva and Catherine Ndereba.

Radcliffe and Wami showed no signs of cracking and forged further ahead as they raced up 1st Avenue, crossing the bridge into the Bronx at the 20-mile mark in 1hr 41min 16sec and with a 3min 33sec lead over the chasers.

Radcliffe started to show strain in her face as she led Wami through Harlem towards Central Park, though the Ethiopian was unable to see it as she continued to sit in the Briton's pocket. Wami, Radcliffe's nemesis throughout her career having been outkicked by the African countless times on road, track and cross country trail, was sticking to the world record holder like a limpet.

Radcliffe made her move in the 24th mile, 2hr 5min into the race, pulling away from Wami as they reached an incline along Central Park East. It looked as if the Briton had opened up a lead of around 15 yards but Wami dug deep and bridged the gap five minutes down the road as the course turned into the park itself.

The pair raced together on a brief descent but when the course reached another incline Radcliffe again opened up a small lead as they approached the final mile marker. Radcliffe did not want a sprint finish with Wami but she could not shake off her old rival. Again she tried to kick as they turned along the south side of the park and again Wami covered her move.

Radcliffe put in another burst only to see Wami overtake her for the first time in the race. But the race took another twist as Radcliffe fought back and went past the Ethiopian, who looked to have knocked herself out of the race with her first attack.

Radcliffe kicked on and finally broke free from Wami - the African this time finding no response as the leaders turned for home. In an almost exact replica of her 2004 victory over Susan Chepkemei, Radcliffe sprinted ahead from the turn and up the final incline to the finishing line, to continue her record of having won every marathon she has finished.