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Tuesday, 26 August 2008
LONDON - Britain's most successful Olympic team for 100 years was due to arrive back home from Beijing on Monday, as team bosses warned that the coaches behind the medal haul could be poached by other nations.
A jubilant Team GB flew back to London on a Boeing 747 renamed "Pride" and with its nose cone repainted gold in recognition of its success.
Britain's collection of 47 medals at the Beijing Olympics, including 19 gold medals, lifted it to fourth in the medals table and raised expectations of home success at the 2012 Olympics in London.
To the disappointment of some fans, the returning heroes will have a low-key welcome when they touch down at 1400 GMT.
People were urged not to go to London's Heathrow Airport to greet them because it could not accommodate a large crowd on one of its busiest days of the year.
Instead, the Olympians will be given a homecoming victory parade through London in October.
But as Britain basked in its success, British Olympic Association chairman Colin Moynihan said he feared the brains behind the success would be poached by high-paying rivals.
The injection of funding generated by the national lottery over the past decade is credited with revamping Britain's Olympic fortunes, but Moynihan urged the government to quickly agree a four-year funding plan for 2012.
He said that working on a year-to-year basis could lead to key coaches with the British team being tempted away by rivals such as Australia, which is smarting from Britain's new-found success.
"A lot of our performance directors have really delivered so it's not going to be surprising for their phones to be ringing," Moynihan told The Times newspaper.
"We have some of the best in the world - there will be many other countries who will want to poach them from us.
"We need four years of funding in place for the national governing bodies so they can negotiate contracts to sign them up now for 2012. It cannot be done on a year-by-year basis."
Dave Brailsford, the performance director of the British cycling team which dominated competition winning 14 medals, is reportedly yet to commit his future to the British team.
The 2012 organisers threw a giant street party in the shadow of Buckingham Palace on Sunday to celebrate the official handover of the Olympic flag to the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, during the Beijing Olympics closing ceremony.