Illness could force Paula to miss Paris

Paula Radcliffe may have to miss next month's World Championships after it was revealed she has been suffering from bronchitis.

Radcliffe, who has not run since her world record-breaking effort in the London Marathon, had changed her schedule to make the 10,000 metres in Paris her first competitive appearance of the summer after suffering a leg injury.

But the illness now means Radcliffe has been forced to miss a further nine days of training on top of the time she took off to recover from her leg problem.

Her husband and manager Gary Lough said: "Paula was back in training after getting over the injury when she picked up bronchitis.

"When you're training at the level Paula is, you are susceptible to all sorts of bugs. If the injury was all she had to worry about it would have been okay. But to be hit by two things at this stage means the circumstances have changed.

"We have to be realistic and take one day at a time. Everything is up in the air. No decisions have been made and it looks as if we'll have to wait until the last possible moment before we commit to Paris.

"We're not where we want to be and there isn't a whole lot of time. Paula likes to prepare properly for championships and a lot depends on how things pan out over the next couple of weeks."

Radcliffe had been training at altitude in the Pyrenees in the hope of beginning her track season at London's Super League meeting at Crystal Palace on 8 August.

She withdrew from that meeting after getting injured last month and had been focusing solely on the Paris 10,000m.