Sir Mo Farah will begin his bid to win a first London Marathon on Sunday morning.

Britain’s four-time Olympic champion, who called time on his track career to focus on road running in 2017, came third last year.

Farah’s preparations have been marred by an extraordinary row with former distance star Haile Gebrselassie over an alleged robbery in the hotel owned by the retired Ethiopian.

The 36-year-old is up against world record holder Eliud Kipchoge, the Olympic champion who holds the course record and is looking for a fourth win in five years.

Eight-time winner David Weir competes in the wheelchair race for the 20th consecutive year.

Farah’s coach Gary Lough said he felt he could turn the negative headlines surrounding the hotel incident into a positive.

Lough told the BBC: “He’s not shy at having a little bit of a distraction. I’m a bit disappointed that some of the stuff is kind of questioning his reputation, his character.

“Maybe it didn’t come out in the right way but for him to get it off his chest and to be able to focus on this is by far for me the best scenario this week.”

Lough added: “There have been a lot of allegations, mostly unfounded, exaggeration.

“It’s not all lies, Mo’s not an angel. There was a little bit of something that happened.”