Facing up to the moment of truth

Britain's athletics team, which begins its Olympic campaign here tomorrow, has already set one notable record - that for the fewest injuries. Normally the build-up to a major championship is dominated by the news of strained hamstrings, bad knees and stress fractures.

But Max Jones, the performance director of UK Athletics, said last night that he could not remember a better-prepared squad. "This is the fittest team I've seen since I first became involved in 1983," he said.

"The legs and arms are all right - now we have to look at their hearts and heads."

Jones credited national lottery funding, which has benefited the sport to the tune of £3 million per year since 1997, for the fact that Britain's elite have been able to travel halfway round the world in such healthy shape.

"For the first time they have been able to receive better medical care and look after themselves properly," he said.

However, with that money comes responsibility. While it might be a bit far-fetched to say that Jones is under the same kind of pressure to deliver that Gianluca Vialli was at Chelsea, he knows that if the team does not meet his target of six medals, funding might be reviewed.

Fewer than a hundred athletes are receiving direct financial assistance from UK Sport but all benefit from better medical support and training camps, like the one the British Olympic Association established on Queensland's Gold Coast as part of the preparations for these games.

Camelot's falling ticket sales mean that the lottery fund is not a bottomless pit and only the sports that meet their targets will be looked upon favourably when they return. So while cycling can look forward to a lottery windfall, swimming and hockey will have to do some fast talking.

"The lottery isn't going to produce instant success," cautioned Jones. "You can't microwave performance. You can't turn Hartlepool United into the best football team in the country overnight. It's about putting systems in place. It's going to be two or three Olympiads before you see the real benefits."

With athletes of the class of Maurice Greene in the 100m, Michael Johnson in the 400m, Hicham El Guerrouj in the 1500m, Haile Gebrselassie in the 10,000m, Cathy Freeman in the 400m and, of course, Marion Jones' epic quest for a record five gold medals, these are going to be the toughest games in history.

Yet a figure of six medals should be well within reach of a British team which has genuine gold-medal hopes for Colin Jackson in the 110m hurdles, Jonathan Edwards in the triple jump, the men's 4x100m relay and Denise Lewis in the heptathlon.

Britain's athletes won six medals in Atlanta four years ago and missed out on a gold medal only because Edwards was guilty of the narrowest of fouls on his last effort in the triple jump, which would have been close to a world record. That centimetre's miscalculation helped trigger one of the darkest periods in the sport's history in Britain, which saw the financial collapse of the British Athletic Federation and confidence in the future badly dented.

From the ashes has arisen UK Athletics and restored confidence. The sport is now riding a financial high again with multimillion-pound sponsorship contracts and a lucrative television deal. Yet it is a future built on fragile ground. The sport needs Olympic gold medals to survive and prosper.

Victories for Jackson and Edwards would be especially warmly received as both men have represented Britain for so long with such distinction. But it is also important that new names begin to make their mark to ensure a continuous flow of talent.

The emergence of the 22-year-old decathlete Dean Macey, who took silver at the world championships in Seville last year, was an encouraging pointer to the sport's future. This year Jones is tipping the sprinter Christian Malcolm to make a similar breakthrough in the 200m.

The 21-year-old Welshman, a former Nottingham Forest schoolboy footballer, has already made his mark by winning the European indoor title earlier this year and Jones is excited by what he might achieve.

"He's sheer class," the performance director said. "I'm really looking forward to watching him compete."