Radcliffe ready for dry run on Olympic course

Radcliffe will join an elite field for the London 10,000m road race on 30 May (GETTY IMAGES)

Paula Radcliffe will be racing on the streets of London next month, testing out much of the marathon course on which her Olympic destiny will be decided on Sunday 5 August 2012. Radcliffe, holder of the women's marathon world record, is to join Mo Farah, Britain's European 5,000m and 10,000m champion, in the elite field for the London 10,000m road race on 30 May.

The race starts on Birdcage Walk and finishes on The Mall, taking in much of the Olympic marathon course. It will be Radcliffe's second race following the birth of her second child, Raphael, in September last year. The 37-year-old returns to action in the Great Manchester 10km road race on Sunday 15 May. "I can't wait to be running in London again," said Radcliffe, who set her marathon world record of 2hr 15min 25sec there in 2003.

The British Olympic Association, meanwhile, is determined to keep its lifetime ban on athletes who have served drug suspensions – despite the challenge being mounted by the American 400m runner, LaShawn Merritt, through the Court of Arbitration for Sport, to the rule which bars offenders from the Olympics.

Dwain Chambers lost a High Court case against the BOA's law on the eve of the 2008 Olympics and has since said that he would not mount another legal challenge.