Berlin: World marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe has dismissed any suggestion that she will be under extra pressure as the home favourite in next year's London Olympics after failing to do herself justice in the last two Games.
Radcliffe was forced to drop out of the 2004 Athens Olympic marathon through illness and injury. Four years later she finished 23rd in the Beijing race after her preparations were hampered by injury and at the age of 37 she has yet to win an Olympic medal on either the track or the road.
At a news conference yesterday before Sunday's Berlin marathon, which is likely to be the Briton's last race over 42.195km before the London Games, Radcliffe said she viewed the 2012 Olympics as a special opportunity.
"I know the streets. I know that we will have great support and it will be a really good Olympics. I'm excited to have the chance to take part in that," he said.
"I think that wherever it was there would be pressure because I feel I haven't yet gone to the Olympics in the marathon and done as well as I'm capable of doing… I actually think that because it's in London it adds good things rather than bad things. "I think really the whole pressure that everybody talks about kind of only plays a role if something goes wrong. I know going into the last couple of weeks into Athens I was injured and the pressure suddenly becomes this big thing that is really hard to bear.
Nerves
"I think that when you are healthy and fit and ready to go it's something that is just part of running, just nerves, it's not a really bad thing."
Radcliffe lost her world record of two hours 15 minutes 25 seconds set in the 2003 London marathon when the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) decided last month that it would accept only times set in all-women competitions.
