By Steve Cram BBC Sport

What can I say about Paula Radcliffe that hasn't already been said?

She continues to amaze and delight me in equal measure each time she steps out to compete these days.

But for her?

A measure of her standing as an athlete is that her first thought on crossing the line was not that she had smashed the European record and won her second track gold of the summer.

No, she was just disappointed that she hadn't run a single second faster and been the first European woman to run under 30 minutes for the 10,000m.

Radcliffe takes 10,000m title

She's absolutely phenomenal.

Having put in the laps that got rid of the rest of them, the lap times started to drop ever so slightly and I thought, ah, maybe she's gone off a bit too hard.

But no. Despite the rain, she ran the second 5,000m just six seconds slower than the first, and that's with no-one to run against but the tail-enders she was lapping.

As far as I'm concerned, Paula ran a new world record on Tuesday night.

I don't care what the record books say. Those times by the Chinese shouldn't stand. This was the fastest 10,000m by a woman by a long way.

Kristiansen inspired the young Paula

Ingrid Kristiansen was Paula's heroine when she was growing up, and it's lovely that it was Paula who finally obliterated her old European record.

They both set their records in the same way - by going out there on their own and destroying those who dared to stand on the start line with them.

The big question now is where she goes from here. First of all, I'd love to see her run the 5,000m here too.

I know she's talked about saving herself for the Chicago Marathon in October, but there's plenty of time to recover for that.

When you're in the sort of form Paula's in, you have to make hay while the sun shines. This doesn't happen very often in an athlete's career.

Believe me, while it does, you have to reap the benefits.

And then what? After the London Marathon we were all saying it had to be a marathon future for her.

But now I don't think anyone in the world could have lived with her in Munich, not Gete Wami or Deratu Tulu or anyone else.

She could go on to take revenge for all those disappointments down the years. It's the World Championships next year, then the Olympics the year after.

It's almost too good to be true.