 De Vos says his 10-medal target is 'aspirational' but achievable |
The chief executive of UK Athletics wants British athletes to win 10 medals at the London Olympics in 2012. Niels de Vos told BBC Radio 5 live it was an "optimistic target" but said athletics should aim for more medals than British teams in any other sports. Not since Tokyo in 1964 has Britain won 10 or more athletics medals in a boycott-free Games, while GB cyclists won 14 medals at Beijing 2008. "We have to aim for the best we've ever done at our home Games," said De Vos. "I'm perfectly happy to put a target out there that's aspirational. We should be aiming to get a better return that we've had in past Olympics. "I've based it on the number of finalists we've been getting in the past four or five years, which has been going up at each major championship.  | I'm not going to say 'that's an event we will win a medal in' when the difference between success and failure is literally the blink of an eye |
"At the last two major finals, the Worlds and the Olympics, we've had 25 finalists. "Can we get to 10 medals? We got six at the Worlds, so there is a way to go, but it's possible." At the Beijing Games in 2008, Team GB's athletes missed the target of five medals set for them by UK Sport, coming home with four - one gold, two silver and one bronze. UK Athletics performance director Dave Collins left his post after the Games. Dutchman Charles van Commenee subsequently took up the position of national head coach. More than doubling the number of medals won by Britain in track and field events is a sizeable challenge, as is De Vos's apparent intention to get athletics to overhaul cycling as the leading source of British Olympic medals.  Christine Ohuruogu won Britain's only athletics gold medal in Beijing |
Under the stewardship of performance director Dave Brailsford, cyclists including Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton racked up 14 medals in Beijing, eight of them gold - smashing their UK Sport target of six medals. But De Vos, formerly the chief executive of Sale Sharks rugby union club, insisted Britain's athletes have the potential to outperform other sports in 2012. "Have we got the possibility of winning more medals than any other sport? Yes, we have," stated De Vos. "I'm not saying we will, but that's what we should aim for. "In most of the events at this year's World Championships in Berlin, we did extremely well. We had finalists in most of the sprint events and the relays, and we won middle-distance medals for the first time ever. "I'm not going to sit here and say 'that's an event we will win a medal in'. The difference between success and failure is literally the blink of an eye in athletics. "All we have to do is put ourselves in a position to have a very good Olympics. Twenty-five to 30 finalists is possible." | GB ATHLETICS SINCE TOKYO '64 British medals won at each Olympics (gold, silver, bronze) 2008 Beijing: 4 (1,2,1) 2004 Athens: 4 (3,0,1) 2000 Sydney: 6 (2,2,2) 1996 Atlanta: 6 (0,4,2) 1992 Barcelona: 6 (2,0,4) 1988 Seoul: 8 (0,6,2) 1984 Los Angeles: 16 (3,7,6)* 1980 Moscow: 10 (4,2,4)* 1976 Montreal: 1 (0,0,1) 1972 Munich: 4 (1,1,2) 1968 Mexico: 4 (1,2,1) 1964 Tokyo: 12 (4,7,1) *Games boycotted |
However, De Vos said he was "avoiding fingering any particular athlete" and would not make individual targets public. "I always fight against focusing on individuals but as a sport, do we have the depth and breadth of talent? Yes, I believe we do." Britain's athletes won 12 medals at the 1964 Tokyo Games. Since Barcelona 1992, however, they have only claimed between four and six medals at each Olympics. Their tally of three gold medals in Athens in 2004 was the highest number of victories since Tokyo, excluding the figures for the Los Angeles Games in 1984 and the Moscow Games of 1980, both of which were boycotted. Sixty-one countries, led by the US, boycotted the Moscow Olympics, where British athletes won 10 medals including four golds. Four years later, 14 countries led by the Soviet Union boycotted the Games in LA, where British athletes picked up 16 medals, three of them gold. Earlier, De Vos told the Times newspaper: "There has been a major, major culture change. | 606: DEBATE |
"At the World Championships in Berlin we had a team of 60 and you could count on the fingers of one hand those who did not perform. That is very different from previous championships. "For the first time since I've been involved they regarded themselves as a team, there was a sense of 'we're all in this together'."
| 
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
Bookmark with:
What are these?