Paula pregnant

Taken off Running Times

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The Times of London will report in tomorrow's edition that marathon world record holder and reigning world champion, Paula Radcliffe, is pregnant.

The 32 year-old athlete and husband Gary Lough told reporter Alysun Rudd that they are expecting their first baby on January 6.

"What has surprised me most is that people ask if I will carry on competing," Radcliffe told the Times. "This is especially surprising as I have said I want to carry on until 2012. And this news means it is more likely, rather than less likely, that I will do that. I want to get back running as soon as possible."

Radcliffe has run three of the fastest marathon times ever run by a woman, and four of the top five. Her 2:15:25 set in a mixed-gender race in London in 2003 is nearly two minutes faster than her next best performance (2:17:18), and must be considered one of the greatest athletics performances in history. Radcliffe has won the Flora London Marathon three times, and the ING New York City and LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathons once each. She won the world title in Helsinki last August after dropping out of the Olympic Marathon in Athens in 2004.

A neuroma surgery put Radcliffe out of the Flora London Marathon last April, which was won by American Deena Kastor in a national record 2:19:36. Many observers had hoped to see a match-up between Kastor and Radcliffe at a marathon this fall. Kastor had already committed to the ING New York City Marathon on Sunday, November 5, and had welcomed the possibility of racing Radcliffe, according to published reports. That match-up may not occur now until the Beijing Olympics in 2008.