Adlington vs Radcliffe - who gets your vote?

[malced]

Thought we should get some interesting debate going to liven up the board a little.

So here goes....

Adlington has done what Radcliffe failed to do - win an Olympic medal. In fact she has won 4 including a Gold or two.

However as Paula balances family life, and battles through injury she is preparing to tackle the London Marathon yet again. She refuses to give up and wants to challenge herself again. After all she has been through it would be so easy to quit. And so easy to feel sorry for herself after missing out on the great London 2012.

Contrast that with Becky Adlington who after 'only' getting two Bronze medals at 2012, announced her intention to retire before Brazil 2016. She cited age as the main reason saying she would be too old by then (at the age of 27).

Running - impact sport
Swimming - no impact

Paula Radcliffe may not have won an Olympic medal but for me she has shown incredible strength of character and dedication to her sport over decades. Can't say the same about Becky. She will quit soon after the Commonwealths at the tender age of 25. She is an endurance swimmer - doesn't stamina improve with age to an extent?

Adlington vs Radcliffe? no contest in my opinion.

Views?

[Margaret c]

In my opinion, Swimming needs more stamina. They have to train harder than runners so you often find that they retire from competition than runners.

Paul has achieved some great results and it is a shame the amount of injuries she picked up.

I can remember John Blackledge's father saying that he did not have as many injuries has John as a rugby union player.

It should be a good debate!

[terrywesthead]

It's Paula for me every time, but then again I'm quite biased! Nobody has come close to Paula's World record time of 2:15:25 set in London in 2003. OK she won't be remembered for her Olympic performances, but as all marathon runners know, sometimes it just doesn't work out.

As well as that debate, I'm starting to think about who'll get sports personality of the year. The nominations haven't been made yet, but surely it will be between Mo Farah, Jess Ennis and Bradley Wiggins? My vote's with Mo, but I think Wiggo might get it because he won the Tour de France and he got Olympic gold too.

[Margaret c]

Come on there must be others that have thoughts on the debate