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Paula Radcliffe's latest brave bid for glory ended in painful defeat as she finished fourth in the Olympic 10,000metres in Sydney on Saturday.

The 26-year-old led for around 22 of the 25 laps but had no answer when her rivals produced the finishing kick in the final 400m.

Radcliffe's broke her own British record with a time of 30 minutes 26.97 seconds as Ethiopia's Derartu Tulu smashed the Olympic record to win in 30:17.49.

Fellow Ethiopian Gete Wami was second in 30:22.48 with Portugal's defending champion and Olympic record holder Fernanda Ribeiro third in 30:22.88.

Ireland's Sonia O'Sullivan was unable to add to her silver from the 5000m as she finished sixth in 30:53.37 to break her national record.

Radcliffe crumpled to the track in agony as her latest attempt to win the gold that always seems to elude her failed and she was helped up and comforted by O'Sullivan.

The Bedford runner, who ended years of just missing out on medals at major championships by taking silver behind Wami at the worlds in Seville last August, had again tried to break the field.

Radcliffe led for lap after lap but could not shake off four of her rivals who were content for her to do all the front running but for a couple of laps.

But her hopes of emulating Liz McColgan, who won silver in Seoul in 1988 when the 10,000m was introduced, were dashed as the Ethiopians and Ribeiro overtook her.

Tulu then sprinted away from her countrywoman to regain the title she won in Barcelona in 1992, carving an incredible 44 seconds off the Olympic record in the process.

Radcliffe was disappointed that it had been left to her to set the pace for most of the race.

"I knew there were at least four or five girls who had really strong finishing kicks and the only way to cut that out was for me to run the hardest race I could," she said.

"But perhaps because I was so fast in the first five kilometres, it made it harder. Even though the time was only a second faster than my (previous) best, the race was worth a lot more than that because of the way I ran it."

She added: "Nobody wanted to help. I was watching the screen and people were dropping off, but I just needed two more to drop off and I would have hung in there for a medal."

O'Sullivan smashed her Irish record yet finished in only sixth position.

"Although I got dropped I was determined to finish the race. Finishing sixth isn't the end of the world. I am happy with what I did and I ran very hard. But the injection of pace caught me out.

"I could easily have said I was not running and settled for staying with what I got in the shorter race which is the distance I plan to do in the future, although I might run the odd 10,000m.

"I was definitely catching up and running at the same pace as them but there was no way I could close the gap down."

After crossing the line O'Sullivan immediately consoled the distraught Radcliffe.

She said: "She ran a fantastic race. When you run the best race of your life you deserve a medal. But the other girls did also."

Now O'Sullivan will take a short rest before racing against Radcliffe at Loughrea in a five-mile road race on October 15. Then a week later the pair meet again in the Great North Run.