If you can’t believe the performance of this British team in the Olympics, you should be here to witness the astonishment in Beijing. People are asking for the sporting secret of a country that, 12 years ago in Atlanta, could only manage 15 medals, including a solitary gold in rowing thanks to Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Matthew Pinsent, but which goes into the last day of these Games in fourth place in the medal table.

When Lord Coe was asked whether, during his athletics career, he could have envisaged Britain being third in the medal table, as they were before being overtaken by Russia yesterday, he replied: “No. Having said that, we did witness that [standard] in vast chunks of track and field. But if you said that to me across all the Olympic sports, the answer would be no. There has been a phenomenal improvement.”

It was the ability of British competitors to rise to the occasion that particularly marked these Olympics. It began on the second day when cyclist Nicole Cooke splashed through pouring rain to snatch victory in the road race. With Rebecca Adlington upsetting American Katie Hoff in the 400m freestyle, the British team got into its stride.

Just as in Athens, the middle weekend proved the highlight, when Britain garnered eight titles. On “Super Saturday”, four golds were won through the men’s individual pursuit, men’s keirin, the coxless four and Adlington taking the 800m freestyle. In addition, Rebecca Romero, the eventual winner, and Wendy Houve-naghel reached the final of the women’s individual pursuit the following day. Down in Qingdao, Ben Ainslie and the Yngling trio were both set to retain their sailing titles, which they duly did on the Sunday.

With cycling, rowing and sailing continuing to produce successes, it was the turn of athletics, with Christine Ohuruogu taking the 400m. Ohuruogu, despite being world champion, was an underdog in her race against Sanya Richards. More surprising were the silver and bronze medals won by Germaine Mason and Tasha Danvers in the men’s high jump and women’s 400m hurdles respectively. It is unlikely that either was in the thoughts of UK Sport when it issued its preGames target of a minimum of 35 medals, which had already been surpassed. With medals in stadium after stadium, Britain had not known an Olympics like this since London 1908.

Sir Craig Reedie, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is revelling in the appreciation of his fellow members, saying: “There is a real buzz among the IOC because they understand the value of what the team have been doing and where we are in the medal table in terms of going into London.” The IOC is privately delighted because they recognise the importance of a buoyant host nation in the build-up to its Games. The public becomes more enthusiastic, sponsors are more likely to sign contracts and the Olympic sports become even more high profile.

Although the cycling squad, by collecting eight titles, has been praised probably more than any other, Britain would still be in the top eight if the medals from cycling were subtracted from the total. Countries with similar population and socio-economic structures, like France and Italy, have been left well behind. Britain, 10th in the medal table in Sydney and Athens, has now beaten them both for the first time since 1976. After Montreal, both Italy and France increased their funding of competitors and they were rewarded with greater success. Now Britain has fought back.

As Lord Coe sums up: “You do not get excellence on the cheap. People get on the rostrum because three things come together. Governing bodies raise their game, there is world-class coaching and there are hungry, motivated athletes.” This has been possible because of public funding. The most significant development occurred after Atlanta, when the Government allowed lottery money to be used not only for capital projects but also for the preparation of individual competitors.

Lord Moynihan, the chairman of the British Olympic Association and a silver medallist as a cox in the 1980 Olympics, particularly praised the ability and hard work of the competitors and the impact of role models such as cyclist Chris Hoy, “an inspiration to the whole team”.

The question is whether Britain can now match or even exceed its performance here. Simon Clegg, the chef de mission, accepts that countries hosting the Olympics invariably do better than in other Games. As in all sport, home advantage is usually exactly that. He cites the example of Spain, who secured only four medals in 1988, but in 1992 in Barcelona got 22, including 13 golds. This boost of staging the event allowed Spain to remain competitive for more than a decade. However, here it has slipped from its former eminence. Clegg warns there can be a “downside” in being the host, saying: “There will be the pressure on the British competitors. There will be huge expectations on the team. Still, the race for places starts as soon as London receives the flag in the hand-over. Four years is not long to go.” The target for 2012 remains fourth place. This will require about 60 medals, of which at least 18 should be gold; in Beijing, Britain has secured an unusual proportion of wins.

In 2006, Gordon Brown, then the Chancellor, pledged £600m of funding in the build-up to London, consisting of £300m of lottery money, £200m from the Treasury and £100m from private funding. The Government hopes that the success here will encourage sponsors to make up a £79m shortfall because of the lack of response to the private funding. The reaction of companies will have to be quick because in October UK Sport, which distributes the public money for Olympic preparation, will hold its board meeting to confirm the funding for the next four years. The sports will know in December how it is to be divided.

However, unless the money has definitely been obtained, UK Sport will have to tell the governing bodies that their proposed funding will have to be cut. This would embarrass the Government, since it might coincide with the Olympic team parading through the streets of London with their medals, an event scheduled for October.

When the distribution takes place, cash will be aimed particularly at sports that have been successful at these Games and in the past, such as rowing, sailing and cycling. Lord Moynihan describes them as “the Formula One sports”. However, UK Sport will also particularly support governing bodies of sports from which more medals can be expected in London.

A prime example of this is swimming. Clegg regards the sport as having had a breakthrough here, not just because of the six medals but because of the number of qualifiers for finals.

Other sports to which Britain is now looking to help towards fourth place in 2012 are archery, badminton, shooting, judo and triathlon, none of which were successful here. Lord Moynihan says: “I have read some reports that Government is considering cutting the funding in those sports that have not delivered medals. My view is that it absolutely essential that very strong support should be given across the board for the summer sports. This is the time to reinforce the funding for those sports with potential medallists to support teams to step up from their results here for 2012. We need more ‘Formula One’ sports. We can’t rely on just three.”

Liz Nicholl, the UK Sport director of performance, made it clear yesterday that she expected all the Olympic sports to undergo “an honest assessment” of their performances here before they meet UK Sport for further analysis. Asked how Australia would react to being overtaken by Britain in the medal table, John Steele, the UK Sport chief executive, said: “As one who knows the Australians . . . they will come back fighting.”

This is why UK Sport has been hunting for unidentified talent, with schemes to find competitors, particularly in activities where Britain has never been traditionally strong, such as handball and volleyball. Britain is not expected to get any medals in these sports in 2012 but they could get even more in rowing than they have here. Last year, UK Sport launched its Sporting Giants programme to find men who were at least 6ft 3in and women 5ft 11in, were county standard in another sport and were aged between 16 and 25. They got 3,000 suitable applications and finally added a total of 58 athletes to their world-class programmes for rowing, volleyball and handball.

Persuading individuals to change sport before 2012 is another key element of UK Sport’s strategy. Cyclist Hoy was a former Scottish junior rowing international, Emma Pooley, who was second in the road time-trial, was a triathlete and cross-country runner for Cambridge University, while Romero was an Olympic silver medallist in rowing in 2004 and may even consider a third sport for 2012.

This summer, UK Sport launched Girls4Gold to persuade young women to take up cycling, rowing, canoeing, modern pentathlon, bob skeleton or wind-surfing and also Pitch2Podium, which is aimed at footballers who do not quite make the grade professionally but who are keen and have the natural athletic talent to try another Olympic sport.

As Tim Hollingsworth of UK Sport says: “We are searching everywhere we can for more medals. The window for 2012 is almost closed.”

FIVE TO WATCH IN LONDON

by RICHARD LEWIS

Rebecca Adlington, swimming With gold medals in the 400m freestyle and 800m freestyle, where she broke the world record in the final, Adlington became Britain’s swimming superstar of these Games. She is 19 and will be determined to repeat her success in four years. The Mansfield swimmer is the favourite to be the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Paul Goodison, sailing Gold in the Laser class and now on to 2012. Born in Sheffield, he lives in Weymouth, where the Olympic sailing will take place. He is aiming to follow in the footsteps of Ben Ainslie and win gold at back-to-back Games.

Louis Smith, gymnastics It had been 100 years since Britain had won a medal in a men’s individual gymnastics event, but that all changed in Beijing. At 19, Smith won bronze in the pommel horse, and he can only improve with the experience he has gained in China.

Heather Fell, modern pentathlon Silver this time is incentive enough for her to be on the top of the podium in London. Before Beijing, she was working as a barmaid in Devon to fund her training after being written off two years ago with injury.

Phillips Idowu, triple jump The Londoner will be 33 by 2012 - a few months younger than Jonathan Edwards when he won triple jump gold in Sydney eight years ago. Silver in Beijing might match his facial piercings, but it was not the colour he wanted.

47
The number of medals Great Britain has collected in Beijing, consisting of 19 gold, 13 silver and 15 bronze. It was our second-biggest medal haul, only behind the 136 claimed when London last hosted the Olympics in 1908