Radcliffe is presented with Abebe Bikila Award in New York City – The Briton who is expecting a baby early next year

New York, USA – World Marathon champion and record holder Paula Radcliffe was today awarded the 2006 Abebe Bikila Award by the New York Road Runners.

The presentation took place under clear skies in intensely cold temperatures outside the United Nations building in New York before the start of the Continental Airlines International Friendship Run on Saturday 4 November.

Radcliffe, 32, won the ING New York City Marathon in 2005 after a dramatic neck and neck battle with Kenya’s Susan Chepkemei, and so achieved splendid sporting redemption following her harrowing exit from the Olympic Games race approximately three months before.

The Briton who is expecting a baby early next year is the latest well known figure from the long distance running world to receive the award which is named after the Ethiopia barefoot legend. Abebe Bikila won the 1960 Olympic marathon title on the cobbled streets of Rome, and returned, with his feet shod, four years later to retain his Olympic laurels in Tokyo.

Norway’s nine-time New York City Marathon champion Grete Waitz, the 1983 World champion and 1984 Olympic silver medallist, herself a recipient of the award in 1983, was on hand to make the presentation. Among the other dignitaries attending the presentation today were IAAF President Lamine Diack, and former New York Marathon Director Allan Steinfeld.

The ING New York Marathon takes place, Sunday 5 November.

Courtesy
Chris Turner for the IAAF
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