It is appropriate that Paula Radcliffe should be enjoying her greatest success over 26.2 miles because if any athlete has shown that a career is a marathon and not a sprint, it is the 28-year-old from Bedford.

More than 10 years have passed since she first prodded the consciousness of the public when she won the junior race at the World Cross Country championships in Boston. Between then and this year there had been little more than disappointments in other major events, leading to cruel speculation that her lack of a sprint finish might mean she would never win anything meaningful.

It had become almost a traditional summer event, to rank alongside Wimbledon, the Open and Royal Ascot, that the flaxen-haired English woman, head bobbing like a demented dray horse, would lead a posse of Africans around the track before being overtaken at the last by at least one, and sometimes three.

The scenario, repeated most memorably at the 2001 Edmonton World Championships where Radcliffe had a memorable public spat with her husband Gary Lough by the side of the track after finishing out of the medals, had become almost a ritual.

With it had come the temptation to write her off as the latest in a long line of gallant British losers in the mould of Tim Henman, an easy cliché reinforced by her genuine modesty and complete lack of pretension.

But Radcliffe never allowed what was written and said about her to dent her confidence. She had continued to work meticulously, improving her strength and speed each year.

Radcliffe had already shown she was a diligent and hard-working student when she graduated from Loughborough University with a first in modern languages while combining her studies with a career as a jet-setting international athlete.

So when the time came to make the move up to the marathon no one doubted Radcliffe would have done her homework. But few believed she would be quite as stunningly successful as she has been as all the elements knitted brilliantly together.

It was a magnificent performance in the London Marathon in April that transformed her into an athlete considered capable of being a big-time winner.

She was always far more talented than the loser portrayed in some sections of the media. But world half-marathon and cross country titles do not have the kind of impact winning major marathons broadcast on primetime television do.

It has been a view reinforced during a summer when she has won the Commonwealth Games 5,000 metres and the European Championships 10,000 metres, both in record times.

Now, after her performance yesterday in winning by more than two minutes, there is no doubt that she is the greatest female distance runner in the world.

As the leading anti-drugs crusader in athletics, Radcliffe is more than just the sport's biggest female superstar - she is also its conscience. It is a heavy burden to have to bear but, with 10 years' practice behind her, it is one she has shown she is perfectly equipped to cope with.

- Guardian Service