THE leader of Britain's Olympic team, Simon Clegg, said yesterday that he believed the International Olympic Committee will permit Scottish marathon runner Hayley Haining to step in as a last-minute replacement for Paula Radcliffe.

The world record holder is defying medical advice in an attempt to recover from a stress fracture, and Dave Collins, the UK Athletics performance director, is prepared to wait until the day before the race, on August 17, before pulling Haining in.

As The Herald has warned, replacements are not automatically sanctioned if athletes have an existing injury. Radcliffe was already injured when named in May, but GB chef de mission Clegg said: "Although she is carrying an existing injury, we're confident she will make the team. But if necessary we should be able to put in place a late-injury replacement. We are confident that would be dealt with sympathetically by the IOC."

Dr Haining says staff at Glasgow University Veterinary School have been extremely supportive about initiatives which could mean her flying at short notice to the training camp in Macau.

Despite medical advice to the contrary, Radcliffe is confident of being there, and for now Kilbarchan's Haining is delaying a decision on travelling. "I will try to be positive about it and if that came up and I made the wrong decision, I'd live with it and do another race," she said. "I will chill out and I will do a marathon in the autumn."

Meanwhile, the BOA chairman, Lord Colin Moynihan, said they would not attempt to prevent British athletes from expressing personal political opinions in Beijing, though they will be advised about an IOC request for no political protests, propaganda or demonstrations.

Hints of a gagging order more appropriate to the hosts than British principles of free speech provoked uproar. The BOA wanted all competitors to sign a contract agreeing to make no political statements, but that has been scrapped.

Moynihan said athletes are entitled to opinions on Chinese policy on Zimbabwe, Darfur or Tibet, but asked them to exercise "common sense".