Athletics chiefs play down medal chances

Athletics is perhaps the, but the chairman Ed Warner and chief executive of UK Athletics have played down Britain's 2012 Olympic medal hopes. So how many medals can we our Athletes in Beijing. A quick look at the raw figures for olympic medals in the athletics events shows a steady decline over the past five games.

Athens 2004	3	0	1	4
Sydney 2000	2	2	2	6
Atlanta 1996	0	4	2	6
Barcelona 1992	2	0	5	7
Seoul 1988	0	6	2	8

This figure would seem to indicate that there will only be three or four athletics medals at Beijing. A supposition that would seem to be supported by the most recent performances at the World Athletics World Championships.

Helsinki 2005	1	0	2	3
Paris 2003	0	1	2	3
Edmonton 2001	1	0	1	2
Seville 1999	1	3	2	6
Athens 1997	0	5	1	6
Gothenberg 1995	1	3	1	5

The 2007 World Championships take place in Osaka, Japan from 25th August to 2nd September 2007.

The next few posts will look at the athletes on the sports World Class Podium programme, and the likelihood of them achieving success at Olympic level. Qualification for the Olympic Games is based on Qualifications standards being achieved within a specific time frame. The standards for Beijing 2008 have not been set although the qualification period began on 1st January for most individual events.