The bitter row between Kate Reed, the 10,000 metres runner, and UK Athletics (UKA) shows no sign of abating, with the athlete demanding an apology from the governing body after she had her room searched for drugs on the eve of the Olympic final in Beijing last month.

Reed had vented her spleen at UKA and, in particular, Dave Collins, the performance director, who has since left his post, when she said that her prospects were wrecked by being forced to do a two-kilometre time-trial on August 14, the day before the 10,000 metres final. However, UKA reacted angrily, claiming that it had provided her with thousands of pounds of medical support. It also put the blame for the room search at Reed's door.

A spokesman said: “Just two days before the 10,000 metres final she intimated to at least two members of the medical staff that she might take morphine to kill the pain. This substance is on the banned list for in-competition testing. Both members of the medical team independently interpreted her comments to mean that she had morphine in her possession. Despite being asked on several occasions to declare her full range of medications, as is the norm, the athlete failed to do so.”

Reed's room in the Olympic village was searched and she took a drugs test. Nothing was found, leaving her furious that UKA had suspected her of doping. Reed claimed that morphine had been mentioned as a joke. “It was said in jest,” she said. “You would have to be rather stupid to think I wasn't joking. I would like an apology and an explanation from UKA as to why I was treated so badly.”

The spokesman said that Reed, 25, who finished 23rd in the 10,000metres final and has since had a stress fracture and peritendinitis diagnosed in her foot, needed to prove her fitness because she arrived in Beijing unable to run other than barefoot on grass. “Had the doping test, the room search and physical test not taken place Team GB would have been sending an athlete to an Olympic final with serious uncertainties,” UKA said.

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