Beijing - Constantina Tomescu of Romania won gold in the Beijing Olympics marathon on Sunday as world record holder Paula Radcliffe flopped again on the big stage. Tomescu, 38, ran away from her rivals at the halfway mark and never looked back en route to victory in comfortably cool conditions and some light drizzle in 2 hours 26 minutes 44 seconds.
The reigning world champion Catherine Ndereba of Kenya took silver as in 2004, clocking 2:27:06. The bronze went to China's Zhou Chunxi in 2:27.07.
The 2005 world champion Radcliffe, who was coming into the race off a stress fracture, flopped again at the Olympics after failing to finish in Athens 2004. She was cramping late and finished more than six minutes behind in 23rd place, her worst ever marathon result.
Radcliffe named the race "one of the most frustrating" and admitted she was "taking a gamble" when she decided to run.
"I knew I was pushing it to come here," said Radcliffe, adding that she would have only quit the race if the pain in her left leg would have become unbearable.
"I would have been doing all that work for nothing if I hadn't got to the finish line," she said. "It wasn't a sharp pain, I would have stopped if it was. It felt like running on one leg."
The 34-year-old had to step aside for a quick "pit stop" just as Tomescu made her move halfway through the race from Tiananmen Square through Beijing to the National Stadium.
She cramped late in the race far behind the leader but gritted her teeth and hobbled across the finish line 2:32:38 hours, almost 20 minutes off the world record 2:15:25 she ran 2003 in London.
The British capital is still on her mind as Radcliffe hopes to be around for the next Olympic marathon at home 2012 in London.
"It is definitely an issue. You saw today that you can win at the age of 38," she said in reference to Tomescu.
Tomescu was the first European woman to win the Olympic marathon since Valentina Yegorova's success 1992 in Barcelona.
Her biggest claim to fame until Sunday was victory in the 2004 Chicago marathon, two podium finishes each in London and Chicago and third place at the 2005 worlds.
"It was a great performance. The gold medal is great," said the veteran runner. "My legs were tired the last 10km. I was looking back because I didn't want to lose the medal."
The 2006 London winner Deena Kastor of the US had to retire early on with a foot injury. Japanese ace Reiko Tosa, the 2007 world championship bronze medallist, also limped out along with former 10,000m world champions Geta Wami and Berhane Adere of Ethiopia.
Five further medal events were set for the evening session: the women's 100m, 3,000m steeplechase, triple jump and the men's 10,000m and hammer throw.
