​UK Sport go easy on high profile sports with 2010 targets

UK SPORT have gone easy on the high-profile sports in outlining their medal targets for Summer Olympic sports at major events in 2010.

In total, UK Sport have targeted up to 98 medals from World Championships, European Championships or Commonwealth Games competitions.

But with regards to the more high profile sports such as athletics, swimming, rowing and cycling which receive a combined budget of more than £95m in the build-up to London 2012, the targets do not appear to be particularly optimistic.

"We know 2010 is still a bit of a transition year and there are different levels of competition across the sports so the medal targets are realistic rather than optimistic," said UK Sport chief executive Steele.

"We sit down with the individual sports and come up with realistic targets that are calculated and are not just guess work, it shouldn't be difficult to predict how a sport will do."

Rowing and cycling are among the most high profile summer sports to have a World Championships in 2010, with the World Rowing Championships, scheduled for October in New Zealand expected to garner between three and five medals - less than the seven won last year in Poznan.

Cycling has been charged with amassing between five and ten medals which should be well within the capabilities of Dave Brailsford's troops, who collected nine World Championship medals last year while blooding a number of youngsters, both on the road and the track.

Meanwhile, in sports such as athletics and swimming which do not have World Championships scheduled for this season, UK Sport have outlined their targets for the European Athletics Championships and the swimming events at the Commonwealth Games.

At July's European Athletics Championships in Barcelona, British athletes are expected to collect between ten and 15 medals - something achieved by the class of 2006, who returned from Gothenburg with 11.

Indeed, British athletes have returned with more than ten medals from every European Championships since 1982.

And at the Commonwealth Games, British swimmers are expected to return from Delhi with 35 medals, down on the 38 won at Melbourne 2006, while that total jumps to 42 across all aquatics competitions.

"The quality of competition at the Commonwealth Games is not as high as World Championships so even if swimming do reach their total of 35 medals we will look at the times achieved and whether they can compare to the best in the world," insisted Steele.

Such reasonable targets go directly against the grain with regards to winter sports, which were expected to produce three medals from Vancouver 2010 - an optimistic target that would have seen Great Britain enjoy their most successful Winter Games for 76 years.

Only skeleton gold medallist Amy Williams returned from Vancouver with something to declare - success in the eyes of the British Olympic Association but not in the eyes of Steele.

"We are disappointed about what was achieved in Vancouver but we can't put more money in where there is no potential for future success," he added.

"It's different from sports like cycling and swimming that we are at the right level and can achieve medals."

And Steele maintains the targets, agreed with the national associations as part of the Mission 2012 scheme, do show increases towards London 2012.

"The targets we have agreed with the sports are challenging but are indicative of the gradual increase in momentum towards London 2012," he said.

"A lot of sports are at the amber level in our tracking system rather than the highest level of green but that is because there is time and room for them to improve before 2012.

"There are so many variables in play when deciding on the medal targets that they vary from year to year and although it looks like some sports have lower targets than in previous years it is because competitions differ each year.

"We would expect to have higher targets in 2011 because that would show our progression and then we are so close to the home Olympics that we should almost be where we would want for optimum success."

For more news, features and live event blogs from summer and winter Olympic sports, visit www.morethanthegames.com.For more news, features and live event blogs from summer and winter Olympic sports, visit www.morethanthegames.com.