World marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe walked into a media circus in Macau last night and immediately killed any lingering hope of an Olympic appearance for Scotland's Hayley Haining.

A posse of paparazzi shadowed Radcliffe's every step; observers peered for the hint of a limp; and four TV crews squabbled over the best camera sites on a balcony overlooking a tourist beach at Coloane.

She arrived at a five-star resort on the outskirts of the world's biggest gambling resort off a long-haul flight, ferry from Hong Kong, and short hop on the British team bus, emerging carrying her own luggage and followed by husband Gary with his.

After a quick change she walked past signs proclaiming: Faster, Higher, Stronger, in Chinese, looking fresh and serene in the face of an inevitable media grilling after weeks of silence.

The former World champion dropped out of the Athens Olympic marathon four years ago and wept by the roadside, but is ready to confront such ghosts again. She said unequivocally that she plans to race, ending weeks of speculation after a stress fracture to her left femur.

Yet it may not, in the end, be the fracture which derails Radcliffe, but a bite from a poisonous spider three weeks ago. She revealed it had needed emergency treatment and stripped some of the flesh from her left foot.

"I couldn't walk on my foot for two days," she said, and it cost four days off running. This means Radcliffe, who has raced only twice since the end of 2005, has had no more than two and a half weeks of continuous unhampered running since she won the ING New York Marathon last November.

The spider bite evokes memories of the Atlanta Olympics in 1986, when Scotland's Liz McColgan received an insect bite which turned septic. She said she had been "in the shape of my life", but finished 16th.

Radcliffe said hers was not an allergic reaction, but a toxic one. "It was a poisonous spider. We went back at night and I had a really bad fever. They put me to bed. I woke up in the night and couldn't stand on my foot. By the morning my foot was like a red balloon and I had a red line all the way up inside my leg.

"I was thinking that somebody, somewhere, had a little doll and was sticking pins in, but something like that just makes you more determined to fight it off.

"I was trying to think of the positives, and if you have a raging fever it's going to help the healing process.

"They thought I might need an IV drip, but in the end I had to have strong oral antibiotics. I could not put my foot down and couldn't run for four days. I've still got scabs on the toe, and I've lost all the skin around my toe. I was given some creams to put on it . . . they were like blisters after the toxins swelled up."

Now that it has dried out, Radcliffe says she may resort to an Aboriginal remedy, emu oil, which has served her well in the past.

The fracture, however, has reduced her normal 12-week preparation to four, but backed by various cross-training methods from a swimming pool to a treadmill at her home in Font Romeu.

"You're just facing a wall," she says, though there's a glimpse through a window of a Pyrenean pine forest. "You can see a little bit into the woods, but I've totally knackered my I Pod shuffle."

Normally Radcliffe would have peaked at in excess of 120 miles per week. She said it was impossible to quantify how much she had actually done, because of so much cross training. Though at greater intensity and volume, it did little to allay fears that she can hardly be medal competitive.

She said her shape is impossible to judge, "because training has had to be so adapted. Normally in my preparations I do certain tempo runs over certain courses. I can't do that this year because everything has had to be modified and everything has been dictated by what my leg can take.

"I'm planning to race. From the nightmare of when it was diagnosed, the whole thing has been a race against time ... I've had to change and adapt training and training times. The aim has always been to start the race."

But she couldn't, "make a definite decision, because I'm running on a leg that could break down. But every time I go out, I'm planning to start the race and run well."

Pressed on "taking the decision on whether she would run," and that UK performance director Dave Collins had said, "it would be a team decision", she almost snapped: "I don't think you're getting it. It's not a decision, is it? I don't think I even want to talk about it. It's not a decision. I'm racing unless my leg breaks down and I can't run. That's it.

"I wouldn't have got on the plane if I didn't think I could make it, but because I haven't been running outside for huge amounts on it, they don't know whether it will get me there."

She says she is getting "more confident day by day, because every day that you run on it gets you stronger . . . I had to push it a little bit, but not stupidly to take risks - I've had to be aware of listening to my body but at the same time asking questions of it, and trying to hurry it along a little bit.

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't think I was in good enough shape - I know from what I've done that I'm good enough to be on the start line."

The woman whose world best of 2:15.25 was set in London more than five years ago, was giving little away. Pressed yet again on her shape, she said: "I don't know, but I'm guessing that I'm not in 2:12 shape, but somewhere in the middle is a guessing game, and the conditions and the weather are going to make it open.

"I just think if you can put yourself on the start line, you're in there with a chance, and think positive when you're there - you're in with a chance."

Medal competitive? "You can think about it like any other race, and in any race I go into, my aim is to win the race, so that's what I'm thinking."

She said each setback had hit her "like a punch in the stomach, and you're down on the floor. But fighting it does give you a bit of energy as well." She had conducted our interview under two posters proclaiming: "Britain's Olympic Ambition". Just as she was about to stand up, one of those slid off the wall, revealing a painting of a galloping horse, white mane flying.

It would be comforting to think of this as an omen for her. Nobody more epitomises her nation's Olympic ambition. One hopes she can be that galloping filly, but fears she may slide off, on hitting the wall.

As she left for TV interviews, there was an exchange between husband and wife. The body language spoke of discord.

The stress for Paula Radcliffe may be only just beginning.

Haining: keeping distance kept peace

THE last chance of going to the Olympics ended for Hayley Haining the moment that world record holder Paula Radcliffe boarded the plane for Macau.

A 36-year-old veterinary surgeon at Glasgow University vet school, and a member of Kilbarchan, Dr Haining used to beat Radcliffe as a junior, but years of subsequent injury have prevented the Scot fulfilling her dreams.

Having overcome these, it seemed she might have a final chance, having been named as reserve. She and Radcliffe had not spoken since the latter's injury.

Radcliffe said last night this was because Haining did not wish to. "I do feel bad for the position that she's been put in, but at the same time, it's something that's important to me, and the whole way through I've wanted to believe, and have believed, that I would be here," said Radcliffe. "So I would never give up my place."

Haining revealed she had been in constant contact with Alan Storey, the UK endurance performance manager. "I felt it was best to continue like that, so that it did not become personal and emotional," she said.

"Alan was always straight up with me, telling me how things were going, and I took the information on board. Everything that's been done has been within the scope of what UK Athletics had told us.

"I have known Paula a long time, and if we'd spoken on the phone, the relationship might have changed.

"This is a unique situation. At least Paula is there now and we can both focus on our running . . . Every time I came back after injury, two or three times over the years, she has always come up to me on the start line and said: "Hello," and that she was pleased to see me.

"The situation we've been thrown into is very unfortunate, but I bear her no ill-will whatsoever, and wish her every success. I hope she gets over the spider bite."

She says she hopes to do the Great Scottish Run half marathon on September 7. "I am in the shape of my life, and hope to run a personal best," she said. "I took 12 seconds from my best at 10k in Cardiff a week ago, and I don't regard that as my distance. Hopefully I can run an autumn marathon now."

Depending where that is, it might even be against Radcliffe.