World recorder Haile Gebrselassie rethinks running in the Smog

In recent photographs, it's been as thick and all- enveloping as the haar off the North Sea, but Beijing's smog, a duvet of industrial gases, coal dust and vehicle particulates, has left China's Olympic Games organisers seriously exposed in the final three weeks of preparation. Can the Chinese organisers fulfil their promise to clean the air in time for the opening ceremony on August 8? After insisting for months that they could, with three weeks to go and recent studies still finding pollution to be above World Health Organisation safe levels, their promises are looking shaky.

Officials from participating teams are leaving nothing to chance. In particular, they fear that pollution in Beijing could bring on asthma in athletes who have never knowingly suffered from the condition before. Some asthma drugs, such as salbutamol, are on the banned substance list and can only be used by athletes who have certificates to prove they are sufferers, but a runner or swimmer suddenly having an attack while in Beijing would not have the required paperwork. Such an attack could undermine their Olympic hopes.

"It could stop an athlete getting to the final or stop a finalist getting a medal - it could have quite a devastating effect," says Dr Brian Walker, head of sports medicine at the Scottish Institute of Sport.

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