Paula's pain as Olympic marathon dream shattered - for another four years

Not only did she finish but looking across the mixed zone where athletes meet media and glimpsing the winner, Constantina Tomescu, she vowed she would bid again for gold in London in 2012.

'Absolutely, yes. Marathon is one event where you can continue when you are older. Constantina is 38, my age in London, and the support there will be a massive help,' she said.

Agony: Radcliffe recoils at the finish line

In Athens four years ago, the final halt came four miles from the finish, her body destroyed by its violent reaction to anti-inflammatories prescribed for an injury. The tap room talkers called her a quitter but the defiant answer came yesterday.

For six miles she had run with a tightened calf muscle in the leg in which the femur developed a stress fracture in April. 'It wasn't a sharp pain. I would have stopped if it was. I just couldn't use it. It was like running on one leg,' she explained.

The stretching against the crash barrier relieved it briefly but it returned. 'The worse bit for hurting was the hair-pin, the down bit coming into the stadium. That really hurt but I really wanted to finish,' she said after finishing 23rd in 2hrs 32min 38 sec, the slowest marathon of her career and yet less than six minutes behind Tomescu.

Tomescu secured Romania's third gold medal in Beijing

'It's frustrating. I was really comfortable. I just couldn't go any quicker...' and at this point the eyes welled and the tears came, the whole sorry business of spending four months rehabilitating from the stress fracture and too little time running overwhelming her finally.

'Cardio-vascularly I was okay,' she sobbed, the tears now forcing her again to stop the talking to compose herself. 'That was the real frustration. We knew it was a gamble but I couldn't watch it on tv.'

Bright start: Radcliffe (Front left) began the marathon well

There was never a moment's thought of quitting. 'No. If I felt I was really doing damage I would have stopped but it is horrible when you have to drop out, especially when it is the Olympic Games. So many people have worked hard to get me here.  And in some ways it is quicker to keep going because you are just left out there on your own if you stop somewhere.'

Memories, clearly, of the kerbstone in an Athens suburb and the two British spectators who had to come to her aid. Would she have walked rather than stopping this time?

'Yeah, it would probably have been better and less painful walking. Hopefully I haven't made the old injury worse because that means I can come back. It doesn't hurt when I walk. I just didn't have enough running in my legs.'

Memories of Athens: Radcliffe's marathon quest begins to go awry

She revealed here that she had run on the roads only 'six or seven times' before she joined the British team, and had two weeks of normal training for a marathon when 12 weeks is considered critical. And would she made the same decision to run again?  'Yes, but with a little more training. I just needed more time,' she said.

She will start a holiday with husband Gary and daughter Isla, and she will not think about her next race until that is behind her. An autumn marathon? 'I don't know,' she said, and among her advisors will be some who see that as far too soon. Next year's London race is a more likely goal.

The other Britons grabbed there share of the television camera's focus. Liz Yelling, Radcliffe's Bedford club-mate, set the pace for a while early on and they fell spectacularly when tripped, grazing her side and badly bruising her ribs.

Comfort blanket: Yelling (left) offers a distraught Radcliffe a shoulder to cry on

She finished eventually three places and 71 seconds behind Radcliffe and needed a hospital scan to eliminate the possibility of a broken rib.

More successful was Mara Yamauchi, the Briton married to a Tokyo businessman, who was always with the small pack chasing Tomescu after her decisive break before halfway.

She eventually finished sixth in 2:27:29 , just 45 seconds behind the winner and 22 seconds from the bronze.

'I am happy with that. To be honest I never thought I would catch her.I couldn't have run at that pace. I'm just happy to be the highest ever finisher for Britain,' she said.

Hopefully, that record will last only until 2012. Certainly if Radcliffe has a clear run at it.