IT WAS the earliest example of Paula Radcliffe’s persistence. Five attempts at the National Cross Country Championships, no wins. Then, in 1991, the night before her sixth attempt, Radcliffe had a dream. She dreamt that she would break clear of Jeina Mitchell, her closest rival in the girls’ under-17 race, and run on to a comfortable victory. Which is precisely what happened.
The latest holder of the first national title won by Radcliffe also had a dream, but Sian Edwards, 16, of Kettering Town Harriers, is pleased that hers did not come true. “It was weird,” Edwards said. “I dreamt I was running on the pavement with the senior men.” Fortunately, though, there was only grass and mud at Cofton Park, Birmingham, on Saturday.
Edwards, by her mother’s account, is as dedicated as Radcliffe was in her formative years. Her daughter, like Radcliffe 14 years earlier, may have won her first National title on Saturday, but yesterday it was business as usual. Far from needing to be persuaded out of bed to go training, she is first up. “She comes and gets me,” Sian’s mother, Alison, said. “She got us up this morning to take her for her run.”
It is for young athletes such as Edwards that the London 2012 Olympic bid must succeed. She is thinking about it already. “I hope we get it, it would be really good, I would probably aim for the 10,000 metres,” she said. Her mother added: “She is really keen for London to get it. She is 16 now and that would be her year. But it is a long way off and it is a precarious business.”
Sian, though, is mapping out her future and, training six days a week, her dedication is evident. “She has been on to the Loughborough website to see what courses they offer,” her mother said. Loughborough is Radcliffe’s Alma Mater and among the best universities for those wishing to combine athletics with studies. Ultimately, Edwards hopes to turn professional.
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Unlike Radcliffe, who as a girl watched her father run in the London Marathon, Edwards is not following in parental footsteps. “We are not sporty as a family and we have no idea where it came from, so she is a bit of a phenomenon to us,” Alison Edwards said.
Like Radcliffe, who finished 299th in her first National, Edwards knows what it is like to finish back in the pack. Although she has placed 16th and 22nd in the English Schools Championships, her only previous National was a race that she would prefer to forget. “I was way back, about 90-something,” she said.
On Saturday, in an under-17 race run together with the under-20 field, she used the older athletes to help to draw her away. Even then, only two from the older age group ran quicker. Fuelled for the 11.30am start by a breakfast of beans on toast, Edwards covered the demanding 5,000 metres course in 19min 10sec, ten seconds clear of her nearest challenger. “One of the best bits was that I got to break the tape — I have never done that before,” she said. “There is never a tape at the smaller races, just a finish-line.”
Although a year younger than Radcliffe when she made her debut at the World Championships, Edwards is aiming to qualify this winter. Pat Radcliffe, Paula’s mother, was present at her daughter’s early Nationals and continues to attend — despite the marathon world record-holder outgrowing the event years ago — as team manager for Bedford and County. The girls’ under-13 race gave Radcliffe Sr that winning feeling again as they took the team title.
Today’s entry forms are tomorrow’s wedding invitations. “You watch the girls grow up and they are like your children,” Radcliffe said. “Some of the girls Paula ran with still run at the club and they invite us to their weddings. I keep saying that I ought to stop because I have been doing it for so long, but I enjoy it as much as they do.”
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At 35, there is no stopping Glynn Tromans, either. After Hayley Yelling had taken the women’s title, Tromans recorded his third men’s victory. Like Radcliffe and Edwards, his first National experience did not mark him out as a future winner. “I was 139th as a youth in 1985,” Tromans said. Still, even that was a dream come true. “I remember being totally delighted,” Tromans added. Finishing first from his club, Coventry Godiva Harriers, was enough for him back then.