ON THE podium she stood, medal around her neck, Union Flag draped over her shoulders. It may have been neither the time nor the place that she had planned for her greatest moment of the year, or perhaps even the most important triumph of her life, but the world was a happier place for Paula Radcliffe yesterday after her thrilling victory in the New York City Marathon.

It was the slowest time, by far, of the four marathons that Radcliffe has finished but this was not the day for thinking of breaking the world record for the third time. The challenge was to prove that, after her Olympic meltdown in Athens 11 weeks ago, she was not yesterday’s heroine and that she is still the most talented woman marathon runner the world has known. Point proven.

No thanks to the restaurant in Manhattan that almost wrote another bad luck story for her. After a cold spaghetti bolognese, which she sent back twice for reheating, on Saturday evening, Radcliffe suffered a stomach upset during the night and it returned to trouble her close to the finish yesterday. “I woke up in the night with pretty bad indigestion,” Radcliffe said. “It was OK in the race but it came back at about 23 miles.”

As the contest neared its climax, with Susan Chepkemei, from Kenya, matching her stride for stride, Radcliffe did not doubt her ability to win, only “that my stomach would hold together”. Fortunately it did and Radcliffe achieved everything she had hoped for from her late decision — at 12 days’ notice — to run. “It was all about taking in the atmosphere, running well, and feeling like my old self again, ” Radcliffe said. “But it will not wipe it (Athens) out — nothing will ever make up for it.”

As trauma therapy goes, this was a significant step along the road to recovery. Across the Hudson River from Frank Sinatra’s home town of Hoboken, Radcliffe’s fourth marathon victory in five races was the latest and most impressive of her comebacks from disappointment.

“An incredibly gutsy run, just incredible,” was the immediate reaction of David Bedford, the London Marathon race director, who was here to watch and begin negotiations in an attempt to persuade Radcliffe to run his event in April. With an equally committed run from Chepkemei, the two produced the closest women’s finish in the 35-year history of the New York race.

While it could not exactly be described as a sprint finish, Radcliffe, whose lack of a kick on the track has been her downfall at Olympic and World Championship level, proved more powerful than Chepkemei in the final climb to the winning line in Central Park. After dropping the last of their remaining challengers at 21 miles, Radcliffe and Chepkemei, who are good friends, matched each other for five miles before something had to give.

Chepkemei finished eight minutes behind Radcliffe when the Briton set her second world record of 2hr 15min 25sec in London in April 2003 and she has a long list of defeats against her. This, though, was a different Chepkemei and a different style of race run by Radcliffe.

In her three big-city marathons before yesterday, Radcliffe had set off quickly and dropped her rivals long before the finish. Now, recognising the demanding nature of the course, and the need to get back on track after her Olympic nightmare, Radcliffe was content to play a tactical game.

Having dropped out of the Olympic marathon after 22½ miles, Radcliffe sat disconsolate in a gutter. However, after winning here in 2:23:10, she was all smiles. “Time did not matter,” she said. “It was just a matter of winning.”

Radcliffe, who won $140,000 (about £75,000) and a car, added: “It is different in the marathon compared with the track because I am confident in my finishing speed.”

Alan Storey, the UK Athletics technical director for endurance, had told of the “sting in the tail” in the course, the undulating last four miles and uphill finish. But it was Chepkemei who was stung, Radcliffe crossing the line as queen bee.

The closest previous finish to a New York women’s event was in 1990, when Wanda Panfil, from Poland, beat Kim Jones, of the United States, by five seconds. Chepkemei crossed the line only four seconds after Radcliffe.

Unlike when she set her first world record in Chicago in October 2002, Radcliffe’s recovery yesterday was not immediate. It was several seconds before she could even bring herself to stop her watch.

Radcliffe is the first Briton to win here since Liz McColgan in 1991, and only the third in all, Priscilla Welch having succeeded in 1987. Now that she has triumphed in three of the so-called grand-slam marathons, in London, Chicago and New York, she needs only to triumph in Boston to follow Ingrid Kristiansen, from Norway, into the record books as the second woman to win all four.