PAULA Radcliffe secured her third world record of the year yesterday with a stupendous performance over five kilometres against a high- class field to win the Flora Light Challenge for Women in London's Hyde Park.

Radcliffe broke away from a world-class field to break the record by three seconds, winning in 14mins 51secs.

In February she ran the world road best for the 10km in Puerto Rico before smashing her own world record when she triumphed in great style to win the Flora London Marathon.

''I am going for the grand slam of world records,'' joked Radcliffe, who also holds the leading mark over the 20km distance on the roads.

It was her second victory in a week after a traumatic period where she was forced to give up on her hopes of running in the world championships just eight days before the action in Paris started.

She had not recovered enough from the injury and illness which have blighted her year since her victory in London in April, and chose not compete.

She admitted the decision was one of the hardest she has made in her career.

But after winning the Nike 10km last Sunday, she secured another memorable victory, beating the Olympic 10,000m champion Derartu Tulu, who was second in 15:20 with Ireland's Sonia O'Sullivan third in 15:24.

The record had stood since last year after American Deena Drossin ran 14:54 in California but Radcliffe's run, which smashed the course best by five seconds, sets her up for this week's BUPA Great North Run and then the world half-marathon championships in Portugal in October.

''When you go into any race, you go into it meaning to win,'' said Radcliffe.

''It was just a case of going out there and running as hard as I could.

"I knew Derartu and Sonia were in good shape, you have to respect other people, but you have to believe you can win it otherwise there is not much point being there.''

Radcliffe led from the start against a field which also included Catherine Ndereba, the Kenyan who won the marathon in Paris.

She was relaxed, even advising a fellow runner to be careful of a barrier at the start.

''With the general relaxed atmosphere, it is different to a world championship," said Radcliffe.

"But yes, there was a genuine concern that the girl did not trip over the barrier.''

She achieved her victory by not running any kilometre over three minutes and said afterwards: ''When I stand on the line I put as much pressure on myself as anyone is going to put on me because what I want to do is win the race.

"I don't think it is possible to have any greater pressure than that.

''It was a disappointing medal count in Paris but you have to look now and say we are not going to get the same number of medals as we have done in previous years because there is much more depth and a lot more countries coming into it.

''We have to make sure that the athletes are performing well and that we have more coming through.

"To do that, it is important to have role models who attract youngsters and attitudes have to change to get more people in and get more people training individually.''