Haile Gebrselassie's withdrawal this week from the Beijing Olympics marathon was fully justified but will otherwise have no effect on the Games, the IOC have said.

The Ethiopian world record holder, who suffers from exercise-induced asthma, said this week he would not run the 26 mile event because he feared Beijing's polluted air was a threat to his health.

"This was a personal choice and no one can force him to run the event," IOC Vice President Lambis Nikolaou said.

"Considering his condition (asthma) it is totally justified but it will not have any effect on the Games themselves."

Twice Olympic 10,000 metres champion Gebrselassie, who will attempt to qualify for the 10,000 in Beijing, is the latest in a long line of athletes and officials who have expressed concern about air conditions in the city which organisers are trying to improve.

"They (Games organisers) are making a great effort to improve conditions," Nikolaou said. "We must not forget that IOC members knowingly awarded the Games to Beijing but with the condition that the Chinese take measures and they have taken measures."

IOC President Jacques Rogge has said events such as the marathons and distance cycling could be rescheduled if conditions were too bad.

Contingency plans have also been drafted, including the possibility of banning about 1 million vehicles from the capital's streets during the Games.

A BBC report on Thursday quoted Gebrselassie as saying he would consider running the marathon if the venue and time were changed.

The Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games was unable to make an immediate comment but last month Zhang Jilong, director of its sports department, dismissed the possibility of a change of venue.

"We have discussed it with the IAAF and decided to start the marathon at 7.30 a.m.," he said.

Nikolaou said the March 24 Beijing Olympics torch lighting ceremony at ancient Olympia had been revamped with a new choreographer and an age limit for actresses playing the role of the priestesses.

"I am not going to tell you what the age limit is," he added.

The Hellenic Olympic Committee said Greek taekwondo silver medallist at the Athens 2004 Games, Alexandros Nikolaidis, had been chosen as the first torch bearer after the lighting ceremony, traditionally reserved for Greek athletes since the relay started in 1936.

China's only swimming gold medallist at the Athens 2004 Games, Luo Xuejuan, will be the second torch bearer. Prominent Greek dancer and stage actress Maria Nafpliotou will be the new high priestess for the ceremony, the HOC said.

Nikolaou also said he would be among several senior IOC members who will carry the torch on the Greek leg of the relay that ends on March 30 before the flame is handed over to Beijing.

European Olympic Committees President Patrick Hickey and Brazil's Carlos Nuzman, a member of the IOC's co-ordination commission for the Beijing Games, will also run at the Marathon-Athens leg of the Greek relay that will cover 1,528 kms in Greece with 605 torch bearers.

Reuters