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British press cry with Radcliffe
London - The usually hard-nosed British press offered a consolatory hug to national athletics darling Paula Radcliffe on Monday after the women's Olympic marathon favourite abandoned the historic Athens race in tears, and in searing heat.
The country had been hoping that Radcliffe would add to Britain's gold medal tally on Sunday to cap a productive weekend at the Athens 2004 Games.
Instead she was pictured in all the newspapers in floods of tears after dropping out of the race exhausted and in distress at the 35km mark after slipping to fourth place.
"The tears of a heroine," was the Daily Mirror headline.
"They talk about the loneliness of the long-distance runner and, with nobody immediately on hand to help or comfort her, she was a picture of isolation," wrote The Times, describing the world-record holder Radcliffe sitting down, "head in her hands, shaking her head, utterly devastated".
The Guardian daily blamed the 35°C heat in Athens; "Radcliffe's failure to finish will reopen the question of why organisers bowed to pressure from US broadcasters to stage the event in the early evening, rather than in the morning."
The paper drew crumbs of comfort by declaring that 30-year-old Radcliffe would "sustain her plucky wholesome image in the public affection".
She was "not just as another good old British loser Tim Henman in running spikes, but as an athlete who (unlike Henman) really did reach the top of her profession against formidable odds, a world record-holder who could not deliver her best in hostile circumstances on the occasion that mattered most," it continued.
The two athletes considered among her main rivals, Japan's Mizuki Noguchi and Kenyan Catherine Ndereba, took the gold and silver prizes.
The stifling heat contributed to Noguchi's winning time being the second slowest since the women's marathon was introduced into the athletics programme in 1984 at 2hrs 26min 20sec.
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