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Paula is a former long-distance runner who became a world champion in the marathon, half-marathon and cross-country. She competed in six World Championships, winning gold in 2005 and silver in 1999 over 10,000 metres. At the Olympic Games she ran in five events from 1996 until 2008, but her best performance was fourth. She gained gold three times in the World Cross-Country Championships and three times in the World Half-Marathon Championships; won one European Championship, three European Cross-Country Championships, three European Games and a Commonwealth Games (all at 5,000). In 2006 she took a break to have a child and in 2007 had a stress fracture in her back, then in 2008 she broke her left leg. Her last race came in the 2015 London marathon. She married her coach Gary Lough and they now live in Monte Carlo.