It tells the story of the athletics year that on the day Team GB announced the first wave of athletes to have booked their seats on the plane to Beijing, they were all upstaged by the man who was not there.

Dwain Chambers will find out on Thursday whether he has been successful in gaining an injunction that will temporarily lift his British Olympic Association ban for doping. Should that happen then he will be included in the final team. Joining him in the 100 metres will be Simeon Williamson, who ran a personal best of 10.03 seconds in the trials on Saturday, and A N Other. That will be Craig Pickering, the European Under-23 champion who was third in Birmingham, or Tyrone Edgar, the European Cup winner who was beaten by Pickering but has gone faster this year.

Making the matter for intriguing is the fact Pickering is the only athlete in with a shout of running in Beijing who has come out in support of the BOA bylaw and, hence, against Chambers' return. Edgar was ambivalent until the implications of his fourth place at the trials hit home and he said rules were rules and they should stand.

So the interesting selections lie ahead. Pickering or Edgar? Who will join Marilyn Okoro in the 800m? Will Steph Twell, probably the most exciting young athlete in Britain, be omitted when she has just bagged the world junior 1500m title? All will be revealed on Saturday.

Are there any medals among those named? The answer is yes. Five medals is the "stretch" target and that is within the team's grasp. Phillips Idowu will breeze the triple jump if he lives up to his hyper-confident utterances about breaking Jonathan Edwards' world record. Christine Ohuruogu fancies her chances of beating Sanya Richards in the 400 metres, albeit it remains to be seen whether her decision to concentrate on the 200m for most of the season pays off. Nicola Sanders, who withdrew from the trials with a tight quad, will also hope to medal in the same event.

The women's 4x400m relay is in with a good shout, while the men's 4x100m could be hugely interesting. UKA invest heavily in the relay and technique won the gold in Athens as much as raw speed. So do they play Chambers, the fastest man in the team, or stick with those who have been honing their changeover skills for the last two years?

Kelly Sotherton is also a medal contender in the heptathlon, although the acute kidney failure she suffered earlier in the season, plus the emergence of Hyleas Fountain, extravagantly talented as well as named, mean she will be up against it. Sotherton will also be up against Lyudmila Blonska, a one-time drug cheat of whom she has had much to say in the past. If Chambers is her team-mate come Thursday night she may have to change her tune.