"The response was staggering and around 4,800 responses were received – reducing to 3,800 after filtering for duplicate applications and those outside the specified age and height range," said Matthew Crawcour, a spokesman for UK Sport about the scheme designed to find potential candidates for handball, rowing and volleybal last month.

UK Sport was aiming to encourage individuals between the ages of 16 and 25, with good all-round athletic ability, to submit an application via its website.

The starting point is that they are 5ft 11in  (180cm) or above if they are female, or males taller than 6ft 3in (190cm).

"Having undertaken some initial analysis of the applications, around 1,000 applications have been passed to British Rowing, which is currently looking at running some geographically based sessions to assess the potential suitability for entry into the sport," said Crawcour.

The first chance to see what the sporting giants are made of will come next weekend May (5-7), as British Handball and the English Institute of Sport will put around 150 potential players through their paces in a series of physiological tests and sport specific drills.