Paula Radcliffe to Receive 2006 Abebe Bikila Award in New York City

Marathon world record-holder Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain won the ING New York City Marathon 2004 in a thrilling sprint finish with runner-up Susan Chepkemei of Kenya. Two years later, Radcliffe will be back in New York City for Marathon Week—not to contend for the title again on Sunday, November 5, but to receive the 2006 Abebe Bikila Award on Saturday, November 4. Radcliffe, 32, is the first British recipient of the award, which has been presented annually since 1978 by New York Road Runners to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to distance running, particularly through a spirit of deep commitment to the sport.

New York Road Runners president and CEO and ING New York City Marathon race director Mary Wittenberg will present the award to Radcliffe at the United Nations before the start of the Continental Airlines International Friendship Run, a fun run through Midtown Manhattan that annually attracts a field of more than 20,000 people from around the world.

“It is a great honor for me to receive such an award,” said Radcliffe. “The name alone represents so much for distance running and it is a huge privilege to join the list of outstanding athletes and previous winners who have done so much for our sport. I am sincerely grateful to New York Road Runners for this honor. I already have a special place in my heart for New York and this only adds to it.”

Ethiopian marathoner Abebe Bikila was the only runner ever to win two Olympic marathons (Rome, 1960; Tokyo, 1964). Five years after his second Olympic victory, Bikila was in a car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down until his death in 1973. He remained a strong advocate of the marathon and was instrumental in drawing marathon running out of obscurity and into the international limelight. Previous winners of the Abebe Bikila Award include Lasse Viren, Grete Waitz, Alberto Salazar, Bill Rodgers, Tegla Loroupe, Stefano Baldini, and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Last year’s honoree was 2004 women’s Olympic marathon champion Mizuki Noguchi of Japan.

Considered by many to be the best marathoner of all time, Radcliffe’s world-record 2:15:25 is more than three minutes faster than any other woman has ever run. She owns four of the five fastest women’s marathon times in history and has six career marathon victories: three in London (2002, 2003, 2005) and one each in Chicago (2002), New York (2004), and the IAAF World Championships (Helsinki, 2005).

Radcliffe’s résumé also includes gold medals at the 2001 and 2002 World Cross Country Championships and the 1992 World Junior Cross Country Championships, three World Half-Marathon Championships titles (2000, 2001, 2003), gold medals at the 2002 European Championships and 2002 Commonwealth Games, world-best times at 10K (30:21) and half-marathon (1:05:40), and the 10,000-meter European record (30:01.09).

Radcliffe’s victory at the ING New York City Marathon 2004 came just 11 weeks after she dropped out of the Athens Olympic marathon and 10,000 meters due to injury and illness. Her courage in returning to competition in such a high-profile event and her gritty battle with Chepkemei over the last six miles of the marathon course won her many more fans in New York City and around the world.

Known for her vigorous supporter of stringent drug-testing and strong penalties to deter the use of performance enhancing drugs in track and field, Radcliffe wears a red ribbon while competing to show her support for blood testing as a means of catching drug cheats.

Radcliffe and husband, former world-class 1500-meter runner Gary Lough, are expecting their first child in early January; she last competed at the San Silvestro Vallecana 10K in Madrid, Spain, last December 31, which she won the in a course record time of 31:16.

ING New York City Marathon 2004 champion Paula Radcliffe will receive the 2006 Abebe Bikila Award on Saturday, November 4.

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