Signs are good for Paula

Paula Radcliffe took time today to check out the Olympic marathon course ahead of Sunday's marathon where she is favourite to win gold.

Radcliffe and her support team arrived in Athens at the weekend and stayed overnight on the outskirts of Marathon where the gruelling race will begin.

"We needed to get acquainted with the course where there have been a couple of changes," said Radcliffe. "Everything has gone really well in training and my preparations - particularly the quality work - have gone very successfully and are completed. Now it is just a case of doing some easy running and light strides."