AW promotion

It has been more than a century since Team GB last won 30 or more gold medals at an edition of the Olympic Games.

They have come mighty close – British athletes claimed 29 gold medals at London 2012 and 27 in Rio four years later, but that 30th win remains elusive.

It is just an arbitrary number, of course, but every Team GB squad wants to do better than its predecessors. And bettors with an interest in betting on UK sports events will be keeping a close eye on developments in the athletics world. Many leading bookmakers offer an over/under line on the number of golds that Great Britain could win – this was set at 14.5 for the Tokyo Games, a target that the Brits obliterated with their final haul of 22.

British athletes competing at the Commonwealth Games and European Championships have been in great form, which is encouraging, and although the 2024 Paris Games are still a good way off, right now things are developing nicely for Team GB.

Back to back champion. 🔥

Katarina Johnson-Thompson retains her Women's Commonwealth Heptathlon title.🥇#CommonwealthGames | #B2022 pic.twitter.com/iKG8xU4KLW

— Commonwealth Sport (@thecgf) August 3, 2022

An added bonus will be the £232 million that the UK government have promised to pump into athletics in the lead-up to the Olympics. This should help to maintain the current high standards that have been set by the team – funding that should allow new rising stars to reach their potential in training at the elite level.

Rule Britannia

The brilliance of British athletes both in the pool and on the track is now well established, and the GB team's future looks incredibly bright too – in spite of the possibility of one or two big names in athletics retiring before the Olympic torch heads to France.

There have been so many exciting developments on the track in recent months that Team GB’s athletics squad looks set for a promising Paris 2024. Consider the exploits of long-distance stars Jake Wightman, who was crowned 1500m world champion earlier in the summer, and Eilish McColgan, who won the 10,000m at the Commonwealth Games in record time.

https://twitter.com/BBCSportScot/status/1554957787448463362

British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith is still one of the fastest women on the planet and Katarina Johnston-Thompson and Lizzie Bird lead the way in the heptathlon and 3000m steeplechase respectively.

Zharnel Hughes is an athlete with revenge on his mind following his Tokyo disqualification, and he will be a key figure in Team GB’s individual and relay squad for the 100m. At a slightly longer distance, Matthew Hudson-Smith – who clinched bronze in the World Championship 400m – will be looking to kick on in Paris.

Although the 2024 Olympic Games may seem a long way off yet, there’s ample reason to start getting hyped up about the chances of Great British athletes finally smashing through that 30-gold-medal ceiling.