Paula versus Lee by the sea

Saturday 25th October 2008, 9:30AM BST.

LEE MERRIEN will come up against Paula Radcliffe in tomorrow’s Bupa Great South Run.

The 10-mile race around Portsmouth is Radcliffe’s first run since the Beijing Olympics and Merrien, who is arguably the Channel Islands’ greatest ever distance runner, will be one of her co-competitors in the elite race.

‘Obviously she wouldn’t run if she wasn’t in good shape,’ said Merrien (pictured). ‘I’ve got to try my best.’

Radcliffe is one of the greats of long-distance running. She holds the marathon world record time of 2hr 15min. 20.5sec. which she set at the 2003 London Marathon.

That year she also set a new world record in the road 10km.