Marion Jones gets to stay in a nice hotel

This places them slightly below San Marino in the general pecking order - the Europeans having brought a trainer for each of their two athletes.

Naseer Ismail is here to run the 800m; his team-mate Shamaa Ahamed the women's 100m. Realistically, the happy duo's chances of ending up on the winners' podium are only fractionally better than mine.

Naseer's personal best is one min 53secs, which would have left him about 90m down on gold medallist Wilson Kipketer if he'd made the final in 1999.

Shamaa has run 12.3secs, which is just under two seconds slower than Flo-Jo's world record. If she were to run against Marion Jones, she'd have 20m still to go as Jones crossed the line.

But all achievements are relative. Both Naseer and Shamaa are national record holders, and both took part in the Olympics last year.

And while it would be overdoing it to call them national heroes - football is the biggest sport in the Maldives by a country mile - they are as much part of these championships as the millionaires.

Preparations are going well in Edmonton

It's just that the experience is different. While Greene and Jones stay in luxury high-rise downtown hotels, the Maldives team are housed in university digs at Lister Hall, in the south of the city.

When they collect their competitors' passes at the accreditation centre, an official takes them to one side, where a woman sits at a desk with a portable stereo and a stack of CDs.

Sliding in a disc, she flicks through the tracks. "This one?" she asks coach PR Nair. He shakes his head. "What about this one?"

Touchingly, they are searching for the Maldives national anthem.

Of course, unless either Naseer or Shamaa produce the biggest upset since Goliath took a tumble, it will never be played. But appearances must be maintained.

Somewhere on the CD, among the Mauritian, Malaysian and Madagascan ditties, they find it and dutifully note the track number.

Then there is the issue of who will carry the national flag at the opening ceremony. They could literally toss a coin to decide, something that couldn't be said about the 65-strong British team.

Naseer steps in. "Shall I do it?" he asks coach Nair and Shamaa. They look at each other and nod in agreement.

Facilities

Both athletes tell me that they feel in good shape, despite the 22-hour journey they endured to get here. They're looking forward to using the training facilities in Edmonton, as would you if you were used to a mud track back home.

As anyone who's been there on their honeymoon will tell you, most of the 200-odd islands that make up the Maldives are pretty small.

When you consider that you can walk round some of the most popular holiday islands in 20 minutes, it's perhaps not surprising that the country's star performers run no further than 800m.

The marathon? Where would you go?

Coach Nair tells me, as we drop them back at their digs, that national records could be broken next week by Naseer and Shamaa. It's a serious possibility. And who could begrudge them that?