The Gardeners' World Blog

I'm Michael Cole and I'm the editor of live athletics.

The Great North Run normally signals the end of a pretty sustained period of athletics coverage on BBC TV, but following Paula Radcliffe's decision to take part in the New York Marathon we have an addition to our usual schedule. We'll be showing live coverage of both the men's and women's races on BBC TWO on Sunday 4 November.

By and large the plans for what is covered on TV are made well in advance. Long term rights contracts, negotiations with BBC ONE and TWO for airtime as well as the relatively high cost of delivering TV coverage mean that, on the whole, TV does not react with the same speed and news agenda as BBC radio sport or the BBC Sport website.