World Athletics 2011: Will Daegu be Britain’s best ever?

I would say that there is a second group who are in range of a medal, but for whom a top-six placing would also be regarded as respectable given the formidable opposition in their events.

These are Lisa Dobriskey (1500m), Jenny Meadows (800m), Greg Rutherford and Chris Tomlinson (both long jump), Perri Shakes-Drayton (400m hurdles), Tiffany Ofili-Porter (100m hurdles) and Goldie Sayers (javelin).

I am expecting all of these to at least reach their finals.

And let’s hope that someone not listed above can produce a breakthrough, just as sprint hurdler William Sharman managed with his fourth place in Berlin two years ago. It is moments like that which I enjoy the most at these big championships.

I am not so optimistic for GB in the relays, though, where they have so often picked up bonus medals. I reckon the US and Jamaica have locked up two of the three podium places across all four races.

Britain’s 100m and 400m men and women are not firing on all cylinders this year, but they will need to do so in order to displace say, Trinidad or Japan in the men’s 4x100m or Russia in either of the 4x400m relays.

Back in the individual events, these World Championships pose lots of interesting questions: Are 100m star Usain Bolt, distance-running legend Kenenisa Bekele and pole vaulter Yelena Isinbaeva back to their best?

Who will win when history’s three fastest high hurdlers – Cuba’s Dayron Robles, Liu Xiang of China and American David Oliver – go head-to-head-to-head?

Can South Africans Caster Semenya and Oscar Pistorius outrun their respective controversies?

And will we see the first ever 80m hammer throw by a woman? I could go on, but instead here are my predictions of gold medallists: