Before the First World War Leon Meredith and Bill Bailey were regularly on top of the podium with fellow Britons often occupying the silver and bronze positions.Keen's target of five medals revives these memories, but he is aware of the task of keeping his riders on the boil."It's difficult peaking for two major events so close together. The challenge for everyone will be to lift their performance after only one month following the Olympics," he said. "This is a new challenge for everyone." And a refreshing change from the time when British teams returned from championships with only excuses to offer.The fact that the gap has closed between British performances and those of the major cycling nations is down to Keen's plan which impressed sufficiently to land Lottery cash by the millions.Without the funding restrictions normally imposed on a sport that is not mainstream in Britain, he was able to prepare his riders properly, and Manchester's Velodrome was their "umbrella" against the fickle summer weather.With this indoor 250-metre track racers could train the year round, and it also attracts novice riders to drop-in sessions where they are coached in racing skills. One such beginner was Jason Queally who five years later found himself hardly believing that he was waving to a packed stadium in Sydney whilst wearing an Olympic gold medal.The previous year Queally and team-mates Chris Hoy and Craig MacLean had won the Olympic sprint, a timed team race, at the European championships, and taken silver behind France in the World championships in Berlin."Chris and Craig have got very good form so there's a good chance we might go the whole way to gold," said Queally, who found his way to cycling via triathlons. "I am looking forward to the championships at a home venue and home support which is going to be very uplifting for the whole team."Britain's Olympic success is reflected in the interest in the Manchester event. Three of the five days are already sold out at the 5,000-capacity Velodrome.Queally's dream of a golden double, with a world kilometre time trial gold to go with his Olympic medal, will be tested in front of the first-night crowd by current champion Arnaud Tournant.

The Frenchman's failure in Sydney - he finished fifth - is the spur he needed to recapture the form that gave him the world record three months earlier. Until then he had been unbeaten over a kilometre for three years.The Olympic sprint is on Saturday and, with Queally and company having come within four tenths of a second of beating France in Sydney, the scene is set for British success. The French will be without double Olympic champion Florian Rousseau who helped power them to three world crowns.Similarly, Germany, Olympic and world champions in the 4,000-metre team pursuit, will lack Robert Bartko who added the individual pursuit gold to his world title in Sydney. With the Ukrainian silver medallists not showing, Britain, who won bronze in Sydney, should have a golden glint in their eyes.Yvonne McGregor's hopes will rise from her Olympic pursuit bronze to a greater value medal in the women's pursuit where the main opposition will come from defending champion Marion Clignet of France.. Mark McGwire, the St Louis Cardinals batter who was limited to pinch-hitting duties for the final month of the season and the play-offs, has undergone surgery on his right knee.

McGwire had the diseased portion of his patella tendon removed during the procedure. Mark McGwire, the St Louis Cardinals batter who was limited to pinch-hitting duties for the final month of the season and the play-offs, has undergone surgery on his right knee. McGwire had the diseased portion of his patella tendon removed during the procedure. "Aside from the tendinitis, there were no other abnormalities," said the team physician, Dr George Paletta. "We were impressed by the overall condition of the knee, and the other structures within his right knee were normal."The game's leading power hitter spent two months on the injured list and missed the All-Star Game. He returned on 8 September, but was only 5-for-15 with two home runs and four RBI down the stretch as the Cardinals took the National League Central Division title.The fall-out from Game Two of the World Series final rumbled on yesterday as Major League Baseball opened an investigation into the incident involving the New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens, who hurled the barrel of a bat shattered by Mike Piazza at the New York Mets player during a fiery encounter which saw the Yankees take a 2-0 series lead on Sunday night.

"We're having everybody look into it," said the baseball commissioner, Bud Selig.Clemens was not ejected for throwing the barrel at Piazza, the umpires controversially concluding that the gesture was not deliberate. "He just picked up the bat and winged it," said the umpire crew chief, Ed Montague. "It was just an emotional deal that built over the months."However, Sandy Alderson, the executive vice-president of baseball operations in the commissioners' office, said: "We're reviewing the situation and will take any appropriate action, if necessary."In the past hitters have been penalised for throwing bats at pitchers, most notably Oakland's Bert Campaneris. He was suspended for the rest of the American League play-offs in 1972 after throwing his bat at the Detroit pitcher Lerrin LaGrow, who had hit him on an ankle with a pitch.Any suspension would not start until next season, because the players' association would almost certainly appeal, delaying any penalty until after a hearing in front of Paul Beeston, baseball's chief operating officer Lawyers would need time to prepare for a hearing.. Punters were promised a better deal from bookmakers yesterday when David Oldrey, the chairman of the Starting Price Executive, published new procedures for formulating SPs which have been devised by the accountants Arthur Andersen. Punters were promised a better deal from bookmakers yesterday when David Oldrey, the chairman of the Starting Price Executive, published new procedures for formulating SPs which have been devised by the accountants Arthur Andersen. Oldrey will hope that the new guidelines for SP reporters will draw a line under an argument which has been simmering since May, when the SP Executive, which was then chaired by Terry Ellis of SIS, changed the way the starting price was calculated, simultaneously producing an increase of around 5 per cent in the bookmakers' theoretical profit margins. Oldrey said yesterday that he hoped to see "a reversion to the position prior to May, but not to the pre-May methods".The majority of bets placed in Britain's betting shops are settled at the starting price, but the punters who place them - reasoning that a winner is a winner - often have little idea of how they are formulated.

It is easy to forget that while the difference between an SP return of 6-4 and 13-8 appears small, when the horse is a winning favourite, when multiplied across the industry, it can determine whether hundreds of thousands of pounds ends up in the pockets of the bookies or the backers.The profit margins of off-course bookmakers had dipped significantly prior to May, as a result of reforms to the on-course market - from which the SP is determined - which had increased competition between racecourse bookies. After May, new methods insisted that SP reporters compile information from a pre-determined, and named, group of bookies, and based the final SP on a majority of the bookmakers surveyed. This produced a marked rise in the profit margin per runner, to the surprise of almost no one except, it seemed, the SP Executive itself.Following persistent criticism, the SP Executive commissioned Arthur Anderson to investigate the system, and its recommendations should rectify the situation. Instead of returning the SP on the basis of a majority of prices, the requirement will be amended to one of general availability. This will be judged to be one third or more of the sample, and the best price to qualify under that definition will be the SP."These changes are going to hit the profit margins of the big bookmakers but I hope they will see it as the price to pay for a system that has universal confidence," Oldrey said.The system will come into effect on Monday, when the predictions of Oldrey and Arthur Andersen will be tested.