Radcliffe smashes own world best
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Radcliffe crosses the line in her world record time
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- World record-holder Paula Radcliffe smashed her own best by nearly two minutes at the London Marathon.
The 29-year-old British athlete crossed the line in London's Pall Mall in 2:15:25, becoming the first woman to go under two hours 16 minutes.
Radcliffe had controversially used male athletes as pacemakers to crack the record in the 26-mile race. It is her second consecutive victory in the London marathon -- an event she only took up last year.
She set the previous record of 2:17:18 in Chicago last October.
After a fast start Radcliffe, although maintaining world- record schedule, temporarily slowed before the halfway point.
But a brilliant second `half marathon' saw her only having to cover the last two miles in splits of under six minutes.
After the race she told BBC she had found the last five miles extremely difficult, but gave away her secret of fast racing -- counting in hundreds as she goes along.
The men's race had a sprint finish, with Olympic champion Gezahegne Abera pipping his closest rival by less than two feet.
The 24-year-old Ethiopian held off former European champion Stefano Baldini in an unofficial time of two hours, seven minutes and 56 seconds.
Behind the Italian runner-up, there was even less space to Kenya's Joseph Ngolepus.
