Paula Radcliffe has enjoyed an impressive victory in the Great South Run in Portsmouth, thrashing rivals including Augusto, Mukunzi, Komu, Johnson and Daunay.

The athlete managed to finish the 10-mile race in just 51 minutes and 11 seconds, setting a new record in the process. Jill Boltz held the previous national record but Radcliffe managed to beat it by 30 seconds.

Perhaps more impressively, the athlete admitted that she chose to run at a slower pace than she was capable of in an attempt to save energy before the New York Marathon next weekend. Furthermore, the weather conditions in Portsmouth were not at all ideal, with strong winds and rain impacting upon the performance of the athletes.

For Radcliffe to have smashed the previous record, set 17 years ago, by such an impressive margin is therefore even more of an achievement given the slow pace and the adverse conditions.

Some sports journalists have stated that the athlete has not looked this good since she won the world marathon title in 2005 in Helsinki. Radcliffe won Britain’s only gold medal at the Helsinki World Championships and managed to set a championship record time of 2 hours, 20 minutes and 57 seconds.

The Great South Run was her first race since her disappointing performance at the Olympic Games in Beijing. Radcliffe’s preparations for the Beijing event were hampered by a stress fracture to her hip sustained in May of this year as well as a frustrating succession of calf injuries.

However, she has revealed that she suffered no detrimental psychological effects from the relative failure of the Olympics. Rather, the only “thing to recover from” was the fact that she was not in good physical shape.

The 34-year-old revealed her annoyance concerning her inadequate preparations. She believes that she did not do enough running in the build-up to Beijing and this had a major impact upon her performance.

Conversely, prior to the Great South Run, Radcliffe did plenty of running and “felt more confident” even whilst standing on the start line. This confidence really did show in Portsmouth and she certainly succeeded in her aim to “have a good blowout”.

With this impressive victory under her belt, Radcliffe can now focus upon next weekend’s marathon in New York. She revealed after the Great South Run that her legs felt in good shape and she is confident that she can put in a good performance in the USA.

She will hope that the long flight does not negatively impact upon her performance and that this week goes smoothly both psychologically and physically. Radcliffe has won the New York Marathon twice already during her career but is desperate to win another.

Her victory in the 2004 race was particularly impressive. She was, once again, unable to prepare adequately but still managed to record a time of 2 hours, 23 minutes and 10 seconds.

The men’s race was won by Bernard Kipyego. The Kenyan managed to establish a good lead after just four miles and won ahead of Irish athlete Martin Fagan. Kipyego’s time was impressive at just 46 minutes and 43 seconds.