Mo Farah believes that Team GB will be the best prepared at the Olympic Games next month. The Mogadishu-born Briton said: “I know for a fact that other countries, like Ethiopia, are not doing as much as we are. There can be no excuses.”

That is a heartening view as Farah steps up his Beijing build-up by dropping down from the 5,000 metres to the 3,000 metres at the Aviva London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace this weekend. The Ethiopians and Kenyans will expect to forge a duopoly in China, but Farah believes he is in shape to threaten them. “I am hugely excited and I'm also confident because I feel I'm a stronger runner this year,” he said. “The time I spent living with some of the Kenyans in London helped me understand what they do.”

Farah was down to run in what promises to be a thrilling mile at Crystal Palace, with the likes of Andy Baddeley and Tom Lancashire taking on Craig Mottram, of Australia, another man trying to mix it with the Africans, and Bernard Lagat, from the United States, the present world champion at 1,500 metres and 5,000 metres. The 3,000 metres looks the more sensible option, though.

Farah also said that he was confident that Paula Radcliffe, who helped to fund him in his early years in Britain, would win her race against time after a stress fracture to her left thigh and join him in Beijing. “She is a fighter and if anyone can make it, it's her,” he said. “I think she will be there.”

Ed Warner, the chairman of UK Athletics, said he was not convinced that the British Olympic Association bylaw banning doping offenders from the Olympics would survive a legal challenge in the future.

Despite Dwain Chambers's failure to gain an injunction last week, Warner said that the sprinter had been poorly advised in bringing his case so late. “I don't think anyone could say with certainty that, under English law, it will be rock solid for ever,” he said.