Radcliffe's mind is willing but the body is weak

This time there were no tears, not in public anyway, because this time there was no mystery. There was a perfectly sound reason why Paula Radcliffe stopped halfway round the 17th lap and consigned her Olympic ambitions to oblivion for another four years.

"My legs were too beaten up after the marathon," she said as Xing Huina of China pounded round to take victory in the 10,000 metres. It was as simple as that.

The eyes were watering as she came off the track but her voice was steady as she explained the reasons behind her second retirement in a week full of shock and anguish. "I came here tonight because for me, after Sunday, mentally it was best to get out there and race again," she said. "So if the body would allow it, that's what I wanted to do. The body wouldn't."

Five days after she had pulled off to the side of the road from Marathon to Athens and wept tears of defeat, she led the 31 athletes out into the stadium, her mood hidden behind her wraparound shades. Still in her Team GB warm-up top, she sprinted up and down the track. And, as she took her place on the start line, suddenly a chant of "Paula! Paula!" rose up from stands high above her.

Jostled after the start, she ran the first lap in the middle of the pack but moved up to fourth on the second. Three laps later she followed Lornah Kiplagat of Holland to the front, with the trio of Ethiopians sitting ominously behind. A lap later she pounded past Kiplagat into the lead but stayed there for only two laps as the Kenya-born runner in the Dutch vest slipped ahead again.

She was now part of a group of 10 runners, including three Ethiopians, three Kenyans and two Chinese. A head taller than any of them, she appeared to have fallen into the trap that snared her in the same race four years ago, when she finished out of the medals.

With Kiplagat, Derartu Tulu and Werknesh Kidane taking turns to lead, Radcliffe slowly drifted to the rear of the bunch before, with 10 of the 25 laps to go, a gap began to open.

"I went through a really bad patch at about 15 laps," she said. "Then I felt a bit better. Physically I felt better than on Sunday. But the legs . . ."

Halfway round the 17th lap, exactly two thirds of the way through the race, she stopped. There were no signs of distress. She turned, waited for a few moments and began the slow walk back to the tunnel, managing a smile for a photographer. A doctor from the British team met her but this time she could walk from the scene unaided.

The legs? Well, the legs were something no one but Radcliffe could know about. But, if there was one thing everyone in Britain had an opinion about this week, it was whether she should pack up her troubles and get the first flight out of Athens or pick up her spirits and run the 10,000m.

To Kelly Holmes, speaking at the press conference after her 800m victory on Monday night, it was straightforward. "I think everyone in Britain wants her to run," she said.

It was not quite everyone. Several of Britain's former Olympic heroes advised her to avoid further mental and bodily punishment. The most vociferous of them, Brendan Foster, described her as "physically and emotionally broken" and called for "wisdom to prevail". Sebastian Coe felt that she would be unlikely to take her place in the race. "It's not easy to bounce back from something like that," he said. "The marathon is a very unforgiving distance."

When her parents returned home in the middle of the week, it looked like a reliable indication that she would be taking no further part in these games. They are runners themselves and their support has been a pillar of her career.

But gradually she started training again. A little on Tuesday was followed by a little more on Wednesday, and on Thursday she allowed the team to make the formal declaration that confirmed her original entry, although it still did not commit her to racing. But that day she went out for two runs before making up her mind and first thing yesterday morning UK Athletics made the announcement that she would be there. Almost simultaneously her parents touched down at Athens airport.

It would not be surprising if Radcliffe's role as the captain of the women's athletics team played a part in her decision. And no one could begrudge her the chance to taste some sort of reward from her third trip to the games. At 30 there will not be many more.

It was in Sydney, prompted by her lack of a finishing kick, that she decided to move up to the marathon, with the race in Athens as the ultimate target. But her disaster on the road from Marathon led to the irony of a search for redemption in the very race that had first thwarted her ambitions.

It was the prospect of doing herself further damage that persuaded her to quit last night's race, she said.

"That's why I stopped. I promised the medical staff and I promised the people around me and I promised myself that I'd go in there and give myself a chance. And, if it wasn't there, I wasn't going to do myself permanent damage. I've got to come back, for myself and everyone who supported me, and I will, but I'll have to give my body a chance to recover. I don't have regrets. I'd have watched the race on TV and I'd have said, 'What if? What if?' I went in there and I gave myself a chance."

And there was a moment's pause before, looking her questioner and the world in the eye, she said: "I'm sorry."