Chris Tomlinson has won his fight to be fit for the Olympic long jump and was scheduled to fly out to Beijing last night. The British record-holder has been receiving intensive treatment on a torn right calf muscle in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber but has decided that he is ready for Saturday's qualifying competition.

Tomlinson suffered the injury during the Aviva London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace just over a fortnight ago and said he was “devastated”. A grade two tear was diagnosed and Tomlinson was told it would normally take four weeks to recover.

The Teessider, who won a silver medal at the World Indoor Championships in Valencia in March, has had a mixed season, but jumped a marginal no-jump of 8.40 metres at the Olympic trials. Such a distance would put him in medal contention in Beijing. “I can count on one hand the times I've jumped eight metres in training, but I raise my game for competition,” he said. “You should be able to improve by 5 per cent from what you do in training. I am starting to jump the big distances and am confident I can jump farther than I ever have.”

Sanya Richards, of the United States, has predicted that she could break the Olympic record in the women's 400 metres. The event is one of Britain's big hopes, with Christine Ohuruogu and Nicola Sanders, the world gold and silver medal-winners respectively, taking on the Jamaican-born favourite.

“I've been studying the race so much and visualising it,” Richards said. “If I execute a perfect race, I think I can come close [to the record]. Richards's best is 48.70sec and the Olympic record is held by Marie-José Pérec, of France, who ran 48.25 at the Atlanta Games 12 years ago.