By Tom Fordyce

The Great Britain athletics squad is readying itself for the start of competition on Friday - but who are the potential medallists?

Full GB athletics squad

Injuries and retirements have hit the team badly.

And UK Athletics performance director Max Jones has already admitted that the team will struggle to match the six medals won in Sydney four years ago.

So where will the medals come from - and how many might Britain win?

Maybe that should read "golden wonder".

Paula Radcliffe is Britain's only realistic prospect of a gold medal.

Women's marathon 1600 BST 22 Aug

Whereas the GB team went to Sydney with high hopes for Jonathan Edwards, Denise Lewis and Colin Jackson, this time around the only British world number one in their event is Radcliffe.

Paula's best time in the marathon is over three minutes faster than any other woman in history, and four minutes faster than the personal best of reigning Olympic champion Naoko Takahashi.

Enough to make her a red-hot favourite, yes - if it wasn't for the heat and pollution she will encounter running at seven o'clock in the evening in Athens, and the fact that the marathon results are more random than any track event.

In Radcliffe's favour is her current form.

She has run only twice on the track this year, and on both occasions she was on devastating form.

At the European Cup she broke her own British 5,000m record, while at Gateshead last month she ran the ninth-fastest 10,000m in history despite terrible conditions.

Ordinarily, there would be at least five decent shouts of a silver medal.

In Athens, there are none you can be certain of.

There are possibles, sure, but it will need athletes to perform at a level well above what they have achieved so far this season.

Best of the contenders is Kelly Holmes, world silver medallist over 800m last summer but likely to concentrate on the 1500m this time around.

Women's 800m 2010 BST 20 Aug Women's 1500m 1830 BST 24 Aug Men's 4x100m 1810 BST 27 Aug Men's 200m: 0820 BST 24 Aug Men's javelin 1825 BST 26 Aug

At 32 years old, Holmes is at her peak - and in a rare season free of major injury concerns, has the speed and experience to get amongst the medals.

The men's 4x100m relay team have a chance, with the USA quartet starting as clear favourites and the Jamaicans and Nigerians pushing them close, but the team is weakened by the absence of Dwain Chambers.

Darren Campbell took 200m silver in Sydney and always peaks at the major championships, but that event is rammed with talent this year - Jamaica's teenage prodigy Usain Bolt is one to watch plus the American trio.

Steve Backley could repeat his Olympic silver of four years ago - but not in his current form.

Beyond that, you enter the realms of one-eyed optimism - or at the very least need some of the big names from other nations to underperform on the big day.

On current rankings, 400m hurdler Chris Rawlinson is heading for a podium finish.

It would be a shock of seismic proportions if he were to beat current world champion Felix Sanchez, and South Africa's Llewellyn Herbert has also gone faster this summer, but Rawlinson is in the best form of his life.

Men's 400m hurdles 1730 BST 23 Aug Heptathlon 0730 BST 20 Aug Women's long jump 1920 BST 25 Aug Men's 200m: 0820 BST 24 Aug Men's triple jump 0755 BST 20 Aug

Against that is his patchy record in big finals. Only at the Commonwealth Games two years ago did he secure the medal his form seemed to suggest.

A year ago, all talk of British medals in the heptathlon centred around Denise Lewis. But just as likely now to take a surprise bronze is Kelly Sotherton.

Sotherton is third in the world rankings this summer and confirmed her good form in the individual events at the Olympic trials.

Academy: Jump further with Jade

The only woman to beat Sotherton in the long jump at the AAAs, Jade Johnson, is coming into form just when it matters.

The European and Commonwealth silver medallist only got the Olympic qualifying mark at the weekend but is closing in on her personal best.

And Phillips Idowu, sixth in Sydney, has the potential to challenge Christian Olsson in the triple jump, although this is his first season back after injury and he is not yet at his peak.

At a push you could hope for a British medal in the 200m through Campbell, Christian Malcolm or Chris Lambert.

But right now a hope is exactly what it is, rather than an expectation.