The Gardeners' World Blog

The World Championships is always a great sporting spectacle and Osaka promises to be no different. We'll savour some epic confrontations, cheer on old favourites to glory and watch the emergence of those new stars set to dominate in the future. However, our enjoyment will always be affected, to a greater or lesser extent, by the performance of British athletes on the global stage, and it has to be said that the omens are not good.

Nobody can accuse UK Athletics of not being ambitious and they have set a target for the team of 14 finalists (top eight) and three medals. However, that has to be achieved by a team badly affected by injuries and without potential medal prospects such as Paula Radcliffe. The team have been acclimatising in Macau at the preparation camp which the British Olympic Association will use next year for many of the sports, including athletics. As I was able to see for myself recently, facilities are very good and, most importantly, the high heat and humidity are very similar to the weather the athletes will encounter in Japan.