Athletics: Unfinished business

Brit insists drug cheats are on the run

Last updated: 8th May 2008

paula radcliffe

Radcliffe: pulled out in Athens

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Marathon world-record holder Paula Radcliffe is looking forward to settling some "unfinished business" in Beijing.

In Athens four years ago the 34-year-old Brit went into the race as favourite for gold but was overwhelmed by the heat and forced to pull out.

"I've still got unfinished business with the Olympics," she told Sky News.

"I haven't been a failure in all the Olympics I've been to, but I just don't think I've quite achieved what I'm capable of yet, and I just hope that I can achieve that this time."

Radcliffe also has fourth and fifth-placed finishes to her name from the Games in Sydney and Atlanta.

Cheats

Radcliffe, a vocal critic of drugs cheats in the past, also believes that the cheats are finally on the run. "There will be cheats, but the tide is turning," she added. "We need to concentrate on what we can do to improve the testing and on what we can do to improve the moral side of it as well."

"We need to teach athletes all across the world that to have pride in your performance, to be able to look back at the end of your career and to be proud of what you've done, you have to have done it cleanly and have to have done it fairly."