THE chief of the Great Britain Olympic team, Andy Hunt. believes the nation is on course to strike gold in a big way at next year’s London Games.

Team GB chef de mission and chief executive of the British Olympic Association, Hunt, has refused to set any targets but is satisfied with the progress made in 2011.

Hunt has studied results from World Championships and other top events and composed a “relative medal table” in which Britain would finish sixth with 59 medals from 13 events.

“Although predicting sporting outcomes is far from an exact science, I firmly believe in the benefit of analysing performance data to provide insight into our progress towards one of our primary objectives for London 2012, which is to see Team GB athletes win more medals across more sports for over a century,” said Hunt.

“This includes an outstanding 50 medals won in Olympic disciplines at World Championships this year and shows that we are indeed on course.

“With more than 50 podium finishes for British athletes in 2011, the talent, depth and potential is clearly there.

“For 2012, a priority will be to push some of those second and third place finishes to the top of the podium.”