As first reported on insidethegames more than a month ago, Italian statistican Luciano Barra has predicted that Britain will 48 gold medals in Beijing, including 18 gold, to finish only behind the superpowers United States, China and Russia.

 

That would represent Britain's best performance in an Olympics since London hosted the Games for the first time in 1908.

 

Steve Roush, the United States Olympic Committee's (USOC) head of sport performance, has also predicted that Britain will do well and finish fourth in the overall medals table.

 

UK Sport, the Government agency who provide National Lottery funding to 19 of the 20 sports competing in Beijing, have set a "stretch target" of 41 medals and place of eighth overall in the medals table, which itself would represent the team's best performance in a non-boycotted Olympics since Antwerp in 1920.

 

Moynihan and the BOA, however, are refusing to set specific targets.

 

He said: "We do have a very strong team, better financed and better resourced than ever, and I believe this will deliver the goods and we will move significantly forward from 10th.

 

"For a number of sports we also want to see real progress towards 2012.

 

"We are confident we will move forward from 10th but it would be unwise to speculate how close we will get to fourth.

 

"At Athens, the combined margin of five British golds being silver medals was only 0.545sec, that shows how close it can be."

 

The two sports expected to deliver the baulk of the medals are cycling and sailing.

 

Barra is predicting Britain's cyclists will win eight gold medals while even the more conservative American magazine Sports Illustrated is tipping six.

 

But David Brailsford, the performance director, said: "It wouldn’t make any difference to us what the medal predictions are.

 

"We know across the board where we are at, and we know more or less where the opposition is. We know what sort of times we are looking to ride.

“So rather than working on medals, which are kind of out of our control, we work on specific target times and processes.

 

"If we achieve those, then that’s a success, the ultimate success if you like.

“We’re really well funded, we’ve got a fantastic belief system as a country and, from a personal point of view, we simply have to keep moving forward.

 

“The weather is going to have an impact, but it’s the same for everybody.

 

"What we have to ask is whether we have done our forward planning, and we think we have.

“We trained on the road course yesterday and we really don’t believe the conditions are going to be an issue.

“In general, the facilities are amazing.

 

"The velodrome is superb, the BMX track is fantastic and while the road course is not typical, with a very long climb, it is spectacular.

“All the facilities make you want to get out there and race and our guys cannot wait to get going.”

 

Sailing team manager Stephen Park is confident Britain's sailors can deliver their medals target.

 

They claimed a medal haul of five in Sydney and Athens and Park is confident a target of four medals from 11 events this time around is realistic.

 

Ben Ainslie is eyeing a third straight gold medal in the Finn Class and Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb seek a second consecutive Olympic title in the Yngling class, to share with third crew member Pippa Wilson.

 

Park said: "We're confident that we have got a fantastic team a group of sailors who have really left no stone unturned in their quest for success.

 

"The four-medal target is realistic for us.

 

"We recently increased our target from three medals to four medals and I think that if we win four medals at this Games I'll be very happy."

 

Park is mindful that rival teams will be looking to overtake Britain's status as the top sailing nation.

 

"Lots of the other teams have been working very hard.

 

"Everyone's looking to knock us off the podium and there's no doubt that we're the team to beat at the moment, so we're not resting on our laurels at all."