Inspired by the golden exploits of their Olympic compatriots, Great Britain's Paralympians are in bullish mood at their holding camps in Macau and Hong Kong ahead of the thirteenth Paralympic Games in Beijing, that opens on Saturday.

“The Olympics were an inspiration to us,” Phil Lane, the chief executive and chef de mission of the Britain Paralympic team, said. “We come just after so that is always likely, but this one has been so fantastic for us that it would be difficult not to be inspired. Everyone is so confident here.”

But rather than fighting to move up the medals table, Britain's challenge is to repeat the success of finishing in second place in Sydney in 2000 and Athens four years later. For Lane, who has been a reassuringly strong leader since taking over in 2001, it has been about managing expectation. For much of this year UK Sport and the British Paralympic Association (BPA) have been in disagreement about what the medal target should be for Beijing.

UK Sport, after the increase in lottery funding for the BPA, said that it was 40 golds and 110 medals and finishing second in the table, while the BPA said that it was 35 golds, 95 medals and the top five. Part of the BPA's caution is based on the result that one key injury, for example to David Roberts, the swimmer, could take away 10 per cent of their golds. UK Sport's is partly because the team of 206 athletes contesting eighteen of the 20 sports are the best-prepared and best-funded to leave Britain.

“The difference between Athens and now is that, given the increase in lottery funding that the athletes have enjoyed over the last four years, they are preparing in an increasingly professional way and training alongside the Olympians in the same training environment,” Lane said.

The rise in Paralympic funding has not been as dramatic as the increase from £70 million to £235.1 million for the Olympic team, but it has more than doubled from £14.8million for the four-year cycles up to Athens to £29.5 million for Beijing.

Lane plays peacemaker and spread-better. “We are hoping for between 35 and 40 gold medals based on performances in the last 12 months,” he said. “You would hope that would get us in the top five, but we're not going to be No1.

“I'll have a wager that you will be able to come back whistling the Chinese national anthem.” The host nation are expected to be even more dominant in the Paralympics than they were in the Olympics.

The Paralympics have again expanded from 3,806 athletes from 136 countries at Athens in 2004 to 4,099 athletes from 145 nations in Beijing. China will be represented by 332 athletes. The hosts have the numbers and have prepared and targeted events backed by enormous funding. While many countries struggle to build Olympic high-performance centres, China constructed a £55 million National Paralympic centre in the Shunyi district of Beijing. Teams who have visited have been staggered by its size.

At Athens in 2004, China leapt ahead and were more dominant than any country in the modern era of the Paralympics since 1988. China won 63 golds and 141 medals. Britain were second with 35 and 94 respectively. In Beijing, China are expected to win between 70 and 75 golds.

“We all need targets, but I think everyone recognises what is feasible and they know it is no longer a case of just two or three countries dominating the medal table,” Lane said.

Lane is right that Paralympic Games are increasingly competitive as more nations take them more seriously and the United States Paralympic team are talking tough again after slipping down the table in Sydney and Athens. In Seoul in 1988, 49 countries won medals. In Athens in 2004, that increased to 75 countries, although 600 more medals were awarded that year.

“The number of medals being won, notwithstanding the Chinese, is gradually starting to even out,” Lane said. “We're expecting big challenges from people from countries like the Ukraine, who I spoke to this week. They've been encamped in China for a month at one of their specialist high-performance Paralympic centres. We would hope to win more medals than them, but the issue is that they may well challenge in areas where traditionally we've been strong.

“Brazil were garnering medals at World Championships at a rate of knots. The Americans are very confident that they have put Athens behind them and are back where they should be.

“I think there is going to be a bigger spread of medals than ever before.”