Greg Rutherford claims he is being blanked by members of the British Athletics hierarchy for speaking out before the world championships on kit and funding issues but has warned he will not be gagged.

After qualifying for the long jump final with a leap of 8.25m, the Olympic champion said that, while some executives had been ignoring him in the team hotel, most athletes had been sympathetic to his views. On the eve of the championships Rutherford criticised the decision to replace the union flag on the kit with a British Athletics logo and took aim in a Guardian interview at a funding system that he believes is too much of a blunt instrument and leaves him without any medical support.

Rutherford, who will target gold in the final day in the same Bird’s Nest stadium where he disappointed in 2008, said the response to his comments had been “fascinating”.

“One or two people aren’t speaking to me. The most interesting thing has been what the athletes have got to say and I think nearly every single one has come up to me and spoken to me privately, supported a lot of the things that I’ve said and told me their own stories of what’s been going on.”

He said that after the competition he would have “plenty more to say” but in the meantime was concentrating on adding a world title to his Olympic and European golds. “The biggest problem we have in athletics is that people are afraid to speak out. The biggest thing all the athletes have said to me is, ‘I don’t want to lose my funding, I’ve being trying to complain but I don’t want to lose my funding,’” Rutherford said.

“There have been one or two awkward moments in the lift with a few members of staff. That’s fine, I can deal with that. I’m used to being the black sheep. The one thing I’m worried about is what the athletes are thinking. What I didn’t want, when the articles came out about the flag and the problems I’ve been facing, was athletes turning around to me and saying ‘that’s unfair’. I haven’t had that. All I’ve had is athletes telling me they agree.”

Mo Farah and the team captain, Martyn Rooney, are among those who have said they would prefer to see the union flag back on the kit since they arrived in Beijing.

Rutherford said the quick track in the Bird’s Nest would help him now he was used to it. He blamed its speed for Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s heartbreak in the heptathlon and backed her to return stronger this week in the individual event. “I saw her briefly yesterday and the poor girl was absolutely devastated,” he said.

“But she’s strong, she’s very very good, we all know how talented this girl is. I think when she comes out she’ll know what to do, get a safe jump in please, get to that final and do something special.”

Rutherford said he believed he could jump between 8.40 and 8.50 in a final that will not feature the American Marquis Dendy, who failed to qualify.

His biggest rivals are likely to include two other Americans, Jeffery Henderson and Mike Hartfield, and a trio of Chinese home hopes including Li Jinzhe.

The 28-year-old, who recently installed a long jump pit in his garden, hopes to equal the achievements of his fellow Super Saturday gold medallists Jessica Ennis-Hill and Farah in also triumphing in Beijing.

Seven years ago at the 2008 Games, Rutherford lost his grandfather during the build up and said the pressure had affected him when it came to the final.

“I think the emotions of the year, I was in a really bad place going to it, with the bereavement and what had happened,” he said.

“It would be lovely, and I’ve been thinking about this a little bit, would be to come back here seven years later and put those demons to bed and sign off properly in the stadium. That would be nice.”