This is great news and a real bonus for London to have Paula confirmed this early, and we must now decide whether to run the race in women's only or mixed race conditions.

This is great news and a bonus for London to have Paula confirmed early.

We believe we are the people who represent the top echelon of marathon running. This is about competition. We believe this is the most exciting thing to happen in our sport in quite some time.

We are looking for a sponsor to underwrite this and are hopeful there will be sufficient interest from one which will not interfere with the obligations we owe our present race sponsors.

We've had significant support from the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations), who have been closely involved over a period of time and are fully supporting the project.

Our goal wasn't to impede their work, it was to protect against an Olympic association. We are very supportive of what has been done. What we were doing was protecting the rights of companies who have invested in an Olympic association.