PAULA RADCLIFFE revealed her challenge for a fourth ING New York City Marathon title was undone by a tendon injury.
Radcliffe’s reign as champion came to an end as the British world record holder placed fourth behind Ethiopian veteran Derartu Tulu.
After six months on the sidelines recovering from bunion surgery, Radcliffe was running her first marathon since winning this race 12 months ago.
The 35-year-old had missed the world championship marathon in Berlin in August and then sat out the world half-marathon championships in Birmingham last month due to tonsilitis.
This time, though, she revealed tendinitis behind her knee had started to take its toll before the halfway stage of the race.
“I knew I was fit coming in, it felt great, then at 11 miles it just went,” Radcliffe said. “For the last miles I was just thinking ‘just hang in there’ as long as I could. Just try to stay with them.”
In windy conditions the Briton had led from the gun but the relatively slow pace meant she had been unable to shake off her rivals and at 23 miles was dropped from the leading quartet as Russia’s Ludmila Petrova took off followed by Tulu and France’s Christelle Daunay.
“I couldn’t believe they weren’t running faster,” Radcliffe said. “I was thinking ‘hang in’ and as (the finish) started getting closer I thought I had a chance.
“But when they got away, uphill, I couldn’t go like the downhill.”
