Britain is racing up the medals table in its best Olympics for 88 years after a weekend packed with success in sailing, rowing and cycling.

Five gold and two silver medals and a surprise bronze in the men’s gymnastics brought the team’s collection of gold medals to 11 and its total count to 25. The Great Haul of China promises a bold new starting position of strength and confidence for London 2012.

After a day to savour, Britain was in third place in the medals table last night, behind China, which has piled unrivalled resources into Olympic success, and the United States, which has led the way at every summer Games since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

If the indoor track cycling team continues its dominance this week, when it could add another three gold medals to the four it has won since Friday night, Britain will be on course to surpass the 15 golds won at the 1920 Games in Antwerp.

Britain won more gold medals 100 years ago, topping the table with 56, but the Edwardian gentlemen on the shooting ranges and tennis courts of London were troubled by few foreign competitors. In the boxing ring, where Britain won five gold medals in one day, there were none.

That bygone era bears little comparison to modern Olympic sport, pursued in Britain by mostly full-time professionals courtesy of National Lottery grants.

The extraordinary success of the past three days is the first dividend of investment in elite sport that began seriously eight years ago. Success in cycling, rowing and sailing – the “sitting-down sports” as sneeringly observed by an Australian writer – means that Britain is almost certain to meet the target of 35 medals set by UK Sport, the distributor of Lottery funds to elite athletes.

Before the Games, the agency’s target was eighth place in the medals table, which would equate to 12 gold medals. With the strong cycling hopes still to come, Britain was just one shy of that in last night’s standing.

As the Government prepares to pour another £400 million into Olympic sport in preparation for 2012, the target is fourth place. After this weekend’s performance, that ambition does not seem as lofty as it did before the 311-strong team flew to Beijing.

“We have never had a weekend like it,” Colin Moynihan, chairman of the British Olympic Association, said. “What you are seeing is Team GB raising their game on the highest stage and that must inspire the country to back the teams as we move forward. We must build on it – we must build on it immediately.”

Despite the success in Beijing, a battle looms between sports administrators and politicians for £100 million promised under a £600 million six-year funding package agreed by Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor.

A fifth of the money was supposed to come from the private sector, but consultants are struggling to raise it because of the credit crunch and competition from London 2012 marketing executives sucking up cash in a tight sponsorship market.

Given the public enthusiasm fired by British performances in Beijing, it would be a brave government that denied the resources needed for sporting success in its own backyard.

In the final assessment of Beijing over the coming months, some tough decisions will still have to be made. By Christmas, UK Sport will have a funding plan in place for 2012, where Britain is aiming for representation in all 26 sports.

Sports that have consistently failed to meet expectations, particularly athletics, where 47 gold medals are competed for, will be under scrutiny. It is widely considered that Kelly Holmes’s double gold in the 800 metres and the 1,500 metres and a shock victory for the men’s 4x100 metres relay team bailed out British athletics chiefs at the Athens Games.

As Paula Radcliffe disappointed in the marathon for a second successive Games yesterday, and Kelly Sotherton finished fifth in the heptathlon, gold medal aspirations in track and field events rested on Phillips Idowu, the world champion triple jumper, and Christine Ohuruogu, who won the world 400 metres title but is the underdog to the American Sanya Richards.

Athletics, which received £26.5 million of Lottery money between Athens and Beijing, faces the same searching questions that will be asked of archery, shooting and judo, which yielded no return after spending of £2.8 million, £5.1 million and £6.9 million respectively.

“This is an excellent springboard to 2012, but the bar is being raised ever higher by our performances and public expectation,” Tessa Jowell, Olympics Minister, said. “The big challenge is to be ruthless in funding success and not funding failure . . . Sport at that level is ruthless.”

And there’s more to come at the Olympics

Today 10.20am
Team GB’s cycling team pursuiters will earn Great Britain either gold or silver in the velodrome. The quartet of Ed Clancy, Paul Manning, Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins broke their own world record to book a place in today’s final against Denmark.

Today 10-11.15am
Phillips Idowu, above, gets his Beijing campaign under way in the qualifying round of the triple jump. Idowu, 29, the Commonwealth Games champion, and World and European Indoor champion, is one of the few gold medal hopes in the athletics arena. He has jumped the farthest in the world this year, with a 17.58m leap at the British trials last month.

Today 2.45pm
Boxing has reached the quarter-final stage, and David Price of Britain takes on Jaroslav Jaksto of Lithuania in the super heavyweight division. Price, 25, who knocked out the favourite, Islam Timurziev of Russia, now looks the best prospect for a medal in the ring.

Tomorrow
Christine Ohuruogu, right, belives she has a good chance of winning gold in the 400 metres. One of the most eagerly awaited contests of the Games sees her pitted against Sanya Richards, of the United States. Ohuruogo was banned for a year for missing three out-of-competition drug tests.

Tomorrow 9.30am-12.50pm
Another big day in the velodrome with the finals of both the men’s and women’s sprint competitions. Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Victoria Pendleton all ride – hopefully from the quarter finals onwards. Hoy has every chance of making the sprint his third gold medal of the Games.

Thursday
It’s swimming, and David Davies – or Dai Splash as he is known in Wales – goes in the 10km marathon. Among the world’s best 1500m swimmers – he won bronze in Athens – Davies thinks the long-distance event offers him a better chance of gold.

Thursday
BMX. One of the new Olympic sports and one in which Britain’s Shanaze Reade, 19, below, is expected to win gold. She has twice been the BMX world champion. Before Britain’s cyclists departed for the Olympics, Chris Hoy, who has now won two golds at the Games, said: “If I was going to put my mortgage on anyone winning the gold, it would be Shanaze.”