AthleticsSo the stage is ready for one of the great moments in Olympic history. They have smoothed the old road from Marathon to Athens, polished the old Panathinaiko Stadium, and set the start time for a spectacularly illuminated finish.
Tomorrow evening the Olympic marathon comes home.
But there is still some doubt whether Paula Radcliffe is ready. She's the best runner in the field by over half a mile and in her three marathons to date has won by a margin of minutes rather than seconds. In a way the only thing that can beat her tomorrow is the limit of her own physical condition. And that condition has recently been compromised.
Since arriving in the Olympic Village on Tuesday, Radcliffe has avoided any public appearances, cancelling a planned briefing with the British media. She's travelled over the marathon route once more to double check the images she's been carrying in her mind for much of the last year.
As if she needed any reminder, it's smooth and flat until 13 miles. Then it starts climbing steadily until 20 miles. And finishes with a straight, swift run into the city.
At her best, or even close to her best, Radcliffe would win this race. But something has tweaked inside the last month.
According to Gerard Hartmann, the Limerick massage therapist who has helped transform her into a world-beater, there was a week of intense treatment on a leg injury. At one point it looked doubtful if she'd even start. Now Hartmann is saying nothing more than she's "okay".
Radcliffe also made a visit to the Munich clinic of Dr Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt earlier this month. British athletics chief Max Jones played down the suggestion of a calf injury. "Paula is fine," he said, "good enough to win the gold medal."
Despite being the overwhelming favourite, Radcliffe has raced only three times this year. She was second in a road race in Puerto Rico in February, later complaining of a virus, but in June returned to the track for the first time in two years to gain victories over 5,000 metres at the European Cup in Poland and 10,000 metres in Gateshead. Since then she's fine-tuned her Olympic preparations in the French Alps and more recently in the highlands of Spain.
She won't need any reminder either of who her main rivals are. The leading Kenyan Catherine Ndereba, the second fastest woman in history, won the equally hilly Boston marathon in April, run in unseasonably hot conditions. She's tough, and hasn't even bothered to examine the details of the course. "If I don't see it, it doesn't bother me," said the two-time Chicago marathon champion, and world-record holder prior to Radcliffe.
The other Kenyan Margaret Okayo, with a best of 2:20.43, also has the ability to test Radcliffe, while a Japanese trio, led by Masako Chiba, have prepared meticulously for the course and Radcliffe's style of front running.
When in 1896 Spiridon Louis won the first Olympic marathon, he walked straight into the annals of Greek history. And no less than Pheidippides some 2,500 years before him, Louis remains a distance-running legend. Tomorrow evening Radcliffe has the chance of similar greatness. She won't let it easily slip.
