Size is Not Enough to Knock Australia Off Top

England's biggest ever Commonwealth Games team began to arrive in Manchester yesterday only to hear that their chef de mission believes Australia are still unbeatable at the top of the medal table.

Ann Hogbin admitted that the Australians, who finished first in Kuala Lumpur four years ago with 199 medals, 63 more than second-placed England, remain the favourites although she believes the gap will be narrowed this time.

"It would be unrealistic to beat Australia," she said. "We will have a decent chance of achieving it in Melbourne four years on, as more funding comes in, but we must look at narrowing the gap this time."

Sport England, which paid £3.5m to run the elite athletes' programme this time, had provided the funding that helped produce a much-improved performance from Britain in the Sydney Olympics. Australia's programme has been in place since 1976, however, and they are talking in terms of 200 or more medals this time. Hogbin expects the 440-strong England team to win about 145.

"Recent competitions have shown that we are stronger than ever," she said. "Who knows, we may have a few surprises. We are the home team and everyone wants to do well. Maybe the extra boost from the home crowd can lift someone into a medal place."

Manchester City football club will come to regard the crowd as their own after they complete their move in August 2003, but from Thursday until August 4 their striker Shaun Goater will enjoy an early sighter in his role as special attache for Bermuda, the country of his birth. His brief will be to help the athletes get the most out of his adopted city, a commitment which has seen him forsake the club's pre-season tour to Denmark and very probably a place in the team to face Leeds on August 17.

Carla Khan, meanwhile, the British-born granddaughter of the former world No1 squash player Azam Khan, will be among the first women to represent Pakistan in the games after an eligibility appeal was accepted yesterday. The 20-year-old learnt much of her squash in Britain, representing England as a junior five years ago, but switched allegiance last year and has since became Pakistan's national champion, although she had to wear tracksuit bottoms and long sleeves to do so.