Paula Radcliffe to lose Marathon world record as she was helped along as she ran it with men

[DrNortherner]

sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=trackandfield&id=7009372 The year she set the world record they put a few male pace makers in the woman's race, despite the fact she ran 2.15 (amazing) they are not calling this a world record as she probably would not have achieved this time without the men.

Sexism at it's worst surely?!

[heggertyhaggerty]

Oh they were the worst sort of dinner lady - ancient, antiquated, uneducated, they had favourites and 'the naughty ones' and they had the worst most sexist attitude to everything you can imagine. Horrible old gits.

[ThePosieParker]

Jesus Christ.

[SuchProspects]

Pawsnclaws just wanted to point out that not every marathon course would be allowed to stand. There are a number of restrictions about courses that could lead to a record being disqualified. For the most part organisers would double-check that the course qualified though (and change it before the race if it didn't). Because they'd find it harder to attract elite athletes and they'd be unable to benefit from publicity records can generate.

Being unable to use male pace setters strikes me as a bit of a vicious Attempt to stick it to women in sports. Presumably it also means that a woman setting a record in a mixed-sex race (where elite male & female runners set off at the same time) would be disallowed too.

[Secondtimelucky]

Words fail me, they really do.

So Paula was so much better than other female athletes that she needed a male pacemaker to set the pace she wanted. She is now penalised for this because she was effectively too good for her own good.

There there love, don't get ideas above your station. Stick to nice feminine times.