Typhoon stops Paula

Paula's training was becoming a real marathon effort

There are just a few more hours before the start of the Olympics – and it looks like the gods have got it in for Paula Radcliffe.

Paula, the marathon world-record holder, is trying to get back to full fitness following a stress fracture of her left leg but it's all going wrong.

A few weeks ago, while training in the French Pyrenees where she lives, Paula missed four days of training because... she was bitten by a spider and had to seek medical attention.

Right. Scratch French Pyrenees of the list of places we might visit.

Now, with just a few days to go before the women's marathon on August 17, Paula's at the British holding camp in Macau and her training is at the vital stage.

So the last thing she needed was a typhoon hit the region.

According to local Chinese law, if a typhoon reaches category eight – and it did – then everything closes. Workers are sent home, shops are shut and public transport stops.

And British marathon runners have to sit in hotel rooms rather than train.

We think Paula should have gone out. After all, the last time she went out and the streets were wet, she was the one that wet them.

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