In the early hours of Saturday, October 1 1988, Richard and Simon Mantell were woken from their childhood dreams by their hockey-mad father. He ushered them into the living room of their Somerset home, and placed them in front of the television where they watched on in wonderment as Great Britain's hockey players wrote a famous chapter in Olympic history.

Richard, who was 7 at the time, and Simon, who was just 4, were utterly captivated by the images of Sean Kerly, Imran Sherwani and Richard Dodds dancing in the Seoul sunshine, and now 20 years on the brothers are among the 16 British hockey players who fly to Beijing attempting to live up to the legacy of the heroes of that day.

"I remember getting up," Richard said. "And I remember it was early in the morning, too early, but my dad played a lot of hockey, and he got us out of bed to watch the the final. It was very inspirational and I remember having newspaper clippings of the team winning the gold medal pinned all over my bedroom wall. It definitely had a big effect on both of us.

"Seoul still plays a big part in the sport because if you ask people about hockey they remember Sean Kerly and the gold medal.

"We are very keen to write a new chapter in British hockey, but we are under no illusions that to do that you have to be very successful at the Olympic Games. We're not going there to make up the numbers."

The garden of the Mantell household was transformed into an Olympic battlefield during their formative years, with the brothers honing their competitive spirit by vying with each other in all sports. Hockey soon took over the pair grew up with their father, Chris, who is head of hockey at Millfield School and mother Alison, a PE teacher who coaches hockey and tennis, helping to shape their boys in athletes of great potential.

"We were obviously very competitive when we were young," Simon, now 24 said. "We would compete for everything and It would normally end up in some sort or argument, because neither of us wanted to lose. Being the youngest, I lost a bit more than I won."

But Richard, now 27, and Simon have set their squabbles aside to spearhead Great Britain's outside hopes for a medal in Beijing, after the squad booked their place at the Olympics with a superb 2-0 victory over India in a winner-takes-all final at the final qualifying tournament in Chile. It was a thoroughly impressive display from what was a largely unheralded squad, but such was GB's commitment and organisation that they emerged from the tournament with an unbeaten record and with many reputations enhanced.

Ahead of the Games, not only do the brothers feel that their difficult experience in qualifying for Beijing has helped bring the team close together, but they strongly believe the squad will reap the benefits of emerging unscathed from the fires of a fiercely competitive pre-Olympic tournament.

"It’s has been a huge advantage for us" Richard said. "Although at the time when we didn’t qualify directly through the Europeans it was frustrating, when we look back on it we will probably feel to go out to Chile and win was a huge moment, you can’t replace that, it’s very hard to get that experience of going out and winning a tournament."

"In terms of preparation you can’t ask for much more," SImon added. "I think that that pressure and the fact that we came through it was a great boost for all of us."

Since the gold-medal winning performance in Seoul, GB has failed to finish any higher than sixth at the Olympic tournament.The squad have a tough pool and must face Australia, the defending champions, as well as Holland, Pakistan, South Africa and Canada. But the brothers believe there are plenty of reasons for optimism.

"We’re quite pleased with our pool," Richard said. "Canada and South Africa are perhaps two of the lower ranked teams. And having Pakistan in our pool is a postive thing for us. We beat them in the World Cup, and we have played them and beaten them in some big games recently. Holland and Australia will be tough but if you are going to reach the semi-finals of the Olympic games you can't expect it to be easy. We want to reach the last four and from there anything can happen."

So how do they feel about playing in the same Olympic team as each other? "I think it’s great, it’s nice that he is doing so well,"Richard said. "I enjoy having him around, he’s not too bad, and we don’t have too many family issues!".

"He was actually injured for my first 20 or so caps," Simon said."But it’s great having him in the team. We have played together for five years, and I hope going to the Olympics will be very special for both of us."

Relative merits

Neville brothers
Gary and Phil have made more than 630 appearances for Manchester United between them, while Gary has made 85 appearances for England and Phil has made 59. Coincidentally their father is called Neville Neville.

Charlton brothers
The Charlton brothers won a collective 141 caps for England, and played a key part in the World Cup victory in 1966. Bobby Charlton accumulated 106 caps throughout his illustrious career at Old Trafford, with Jack Charlton winning 35.

Williams sisters
Venus and Serena have faced each other in seven grand-slam tournament finals, five of which were won by Serena, the younger sister by 15 months.

Schumacher brothers
Michael, the older brother by 6½ years, won 91 grands prix and the Formula One world drivers’ title seven times. Ralf has won only six races in a ten-year career.

Bachop brothers
Stephen Bachop, a former Leeds player, came up against his brother, Graeme, in the rugby union World Cup in 1999, playing for Samoa against Japan. Both had previously played for New Zealand.