Radcliffe realised that her only chance of victory was to wind the pace up mercilessly, lap after lap. She did not have the finishing kick to win a slow race, but on a terrible night for distance running - hot and humid - her guts and stamina might see her through.

Chasing her were Ethiopian Gete Wami and the Kenyan Tegla Loroupe. Radcliffe took the lead early and began to wind things up. Head bobbing in trademark fashion, she dropped athlete after athlete until only the three favourites were left.

With a lap to go Loroupe cracked and fell off the group. But Wami looked strong, and with 250m to go kicked past the exhausted Briton and raced home for gold.

Radcliffe collapsed onto her back on crossing the line, shattered, and did not have the strength left to join Wami on her lap of honour. Her consolation was a British and Commonwealth record of 30mins 27.13secs, three seconds behind Wami but fully 47 seconds faster than the time which won Scot Liz McColgan gold in Tokyo in 1991.