Australia came below their old enemy in the overall medals table at the Beijing Olympics last year for the first time since 1988 and Coates has conceded, that with Britain's athletes enjoying home advantage and receiving so much funding, it will be difficult to reverse that trend.

 

In an interview published in the Sydney Morning Herald, Coates said: "They finished ahead of us at the last Games and I would expect them to do it at home.

 

"I can't see them catching us in most of the team sports other than hockey, but it's not looking good and I'm constantly reminded about it as I see their success in sailing and track and field and swimming, where they're starting to win medals.

 

"In rowing they're the number one nation and they're up there in canoeing; they're a strong nation in boxing but they know very well, too, that they are out-spending us."

 

Coates has been warning since Beijing that Australia's athletes need to be given more funding to compete, not only with Britain, but also against the likes of France, Germany and Italy and is growing frustrated at the length of time it is taking for controversial Government-commissioned Crawford Report to publish its findings.

 

He said: "The [Sports] Minister [Kate Ellis] first announced it around the time of our annual meeting in May 2008 and by the time we got to the [Beijing] Games, the Minister announced the appointment of her committee.

 

"We had also said we would prepare a high-performance plan so we gathered our experts together after we got Beijing out of the way, we submitted our high-performance plan - which is one aspect of any review of Australian sport - to the Crawford panel and to the Minister in January or early March this year, and we've been waiting ever since."

 

Since winning a record 58 medals, good enough for fourth position, at the Sydney 2000 Games, Australia has experienced a steady decline to 49 medals in Athens in 2004 and 46 in Beijing last year, where they finished behind Britain, who won a record 47 medals, including 19 gold, and finished fourth overall.

 

Coates said: "The problem with the wait is that the elite components of our sports are clearly finding it more difficult to compete with our principal competitors, which includes Great Britain, Germany, France and now Italy.

 

"And we've found in the benchmark studies we've done this year we've gone below [a projected] 40 medals for the first time since before the Sydney Olympics.

 

"There's no question we're spending the money smartly through Government but we are being outspent considerably by our major competitors."

 

 

Related stories

October 2009: We will fall further behind Britain unless we get funding now, warns Coates

August 2009: Australian Prime Minister to be warned of British threat
August 2009: Britain on the rise, US and Australia slip
May 2008: Aussie funding target on course for London 2012
March 2008: If Australia wants success it has to pay for it, warns Coates