Saturday 26 March 2016 00:21, UK
Paula Radcliffe fears British athletes run the risk of being "like rabbits in the headlights" at the Rio Olympics.
Radcliffe spoke out after Great Britain's meagre three-medal haul at the World Indoor Championships in Portland - their worst result in the event in a decade.
British Athletics performance director Neil Black said he was "content" with a new-look squad's performance and insisted that both he and the athletes should be judged on results in Rio this summer.
But former world marathon champion Radcliffe questioned why more British athletes were not sent to the United States to compete and learn.
"I know there's a funding issue in the cost of getting people there," Radcliffe said.
"But the more people we can get to these championships, who can absorb and learn, is inspiring.
"You have to give athletes as much chance as possible to compete on that stage. As an athlete you've got to race and race and race."
Black insisted he had made the right call by leaving so many competitors at home, saying he did not want tired athletes at the Olympics.
But Radcliffe responded: "You can wrap them up in cotton wool as much as you like, but when they get there they are like rabbits in the headlights.
"They don't know how to actually perform in a championship.
"Lynsey Sharp probably walked away last weekend frustrated because she didn't run to the best of her abilities, but it was important she did that there and not in Rio.
"The best way to learn is to be in those situations and get the opportunity and encouragement to come through it."
Radcliffe also expects more doping revelations to further damage athletics in Kenya, but says issues there are down to "rogue managers, doctors and former athletes" rather than the product of institutionalised doping.
The world marathon record holder spent most of her career battling some of the greatest names in Kenyan women's athletics, but the powerhouse East African nation has been rocked by a raft of failed drug tests in recent years.
Athletics Kenya chief executive Isaac Mwangi was provisionally suspended last month by the IAAF Ethics Board over a potential subversion of the anti-doping process.
Kenya was also among five countries - Ethiopia, Morocco, Ukraine and Belarus being the others - given stern orders to improve their anti-doping programmes by the end of the year or risk joining Russia on an international athletics blacklist.
Asked whether she expected her races against Kenyans to be tainted by further revelations, Radcliffe said: "Obviously more is going to come out on that.
"A lot of people already have questions in their minds about Russia,
"That it was not going to be just Russia, it was going to be other countries.
"But I think it's going to be different. I don't think they will find with Kenya that it's totally institutionalised and led from the federation down.
"It's more likely to be rogue managers, doctors and former athletes and not anything as widespread [as Russia].
"There's huge talent in Kenya and I raced against some very good athletes, but it is a problem there."
Radcliffe added the sport's governing body also had to deal with the issue of logistics when it came to drug testing, saying: "You have to be able to get the tests out to the labs as quickly as possible.
"But a lot of these countries, like Morocco and Russia, you have got to get visas and that has to be broken up as well.
"The only way we can make sure we can believe in what we're watching is to have testing across the board.
"So everybody - wherever you are - is being treated exactly the same and subjected to the same tests."
