PAULA RADCLIFFE lapped every other runner but a blustery afternoon at Gateshead yesterday ruined her attempt at beating her own British, Commonwealth and European 10,000 metres record in the Norwich Union British Grand Prix. Make no mistake, though, this was another colossal run from Radcliffe, which underpinned her position as the overwhelming favourite to win the Olympic marathon in Athens.

All afternoon athletes had complained of the effects of the elements and confirmation that the odds were stacked against Radcliffe came when, in the race before hers, Kenenisa Bekele ran slower than hoped for. Bekele, the Ethiopian who has broken the 5,000 and 10,000 metres world records this season, recorded 7min 41.31sec for the 3,000 metres, six seconds outside Brendan Foster’s stadium record.

Yelena Isinbayeva, of Russia, had earlier set a world record for the women’s pole vault, defying the conditions, but the wind was at its worst by the time Radcliffe appeared for the last event. Her prospects were hardly helped when Yuliya Kosenkova, her pacemaker, dropped out after two kilometres. Running the last 20 laps alone, Radcliffe, the marathon world record-holder, had to be content with 30:17.15, compared with her record 30:01.09.

After a rare defeat early in the year, and an interruption to her training caused by injury, it was suggested that she was looking vulnerable. Beating her own British and Commonwealth 5,000 metres record eight days ago, and now this, is an emphatic response. The scale of Radcliffe’s run was emphasised by Jos Hermans, the manager of Bekele and Haile Gebrselassie, and therefore a man well qualified in these matters, who said: “It was a phenomenal run by Paula, worth two seconds a lap.” If so, that places Radcliffe’s run above Wang Junxia’s world record.

One Olympic gold medal will do Radcliffe. Marion Jones wants to add to her three and Gateshead was her last appearance before the US Olympic trials. Just as before the Sydney Olympics, though, Jones is caught in a tangled web. Her first husband, C. J. Hunter, was banned for taking steroids before Sydney and now the father of her child, Tim Montgomery, is facing a ban from Athens for alleged doping offences.

Jones, although charged with nothing, remains under investigation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency, which has charged Montgomery, the 100 metres world record-holder. She now avoids press conferences and, after finishing second to Tatyana Lebedeva, of Russia, in the long jump, she refused to talk to any media other than BBC television. Not that she said anything new.

So off Jones went, back to the US, to her son’s first birthday celebrations today. Yesterday’s birthday celebration was for Isinbayeva’s coach, Yevgeniy Trofimov. It was the second successive season in which she has broken the world record at Gateshead. Last year she earned $50,000 (£27,000) for jumping 4.82 metres and yesterday she cleared 4.87 for a similar bonus.

Isinbayeva’s effort helped to ease the embarrassment of the IAAF, which decided last August not to distinguish between indoor and outdoor pole vault world records. When Stacy Dragila, the Olympic champion from the United States, cleared 4.83 three weeks ago, beating the previous outdoor highest, it was announced as a world record. Dragila, unaware of the rule change, had returned to her hotel before she learnt that Isinbayeva’s indoor mark of 4.86 was the record.

Among those who stand to benefit from any annulment of Montgomery’s results from the period in which he is alleged to have committed his offences is Mark LewisFrancis, the Briton who finished third behind him over 60 metres in the 2001 World Indoor Championships. Third was where Lewis-Francis finished again yesterday, in a 100 metres won by Kim Collins, the world champion from St Kitts and Nevis.