The clean, mean red machine rolls on to dominance in Beijing

Four years from now, China will be the world's top sporting nation in terms of gold medals won at the Olympics. This is a safe prediction. I will bet my last overdrawn dollar on it.

China relentlessly moved closer to breaking American dominance in Athens. When Beijing comes around, the red machine will be ready to reap the rewards of the hundreds of millions invested by the state in sports, and rely on home court advantage - cheered on by millions of fans - to surge to the top of the standings.

Chinese officials have been coy when asked about their chances of becoming number one in Beijing. Indeed, they said before the Athens Games began that their goal was to be at the top of the second-tier nations - that is Australia, France, Japan and Germany.

'I believe that the US and Russia will be as strong as ever. Our potential rivals are Germany, France and Australia. Over the past four years, the overall strength of China's elite sports has made certain headway in that the number of qualified athletes, sports and events has surpassed that of Sydney. But there is no obvious progress in sports [in which] we could win medals,' said Li Furong, vice-president of the Chinese Olympic Committee.

Whether he downplayed China's chances, or is as surprised as everyone else at the surge in the mainland's medals tally in the past few days, is moot. But certainly, the 407-strong athletic squad has exceeded all expectations, especially in track and field and in team sports, two areas where the Chinese have struggled in the past.

The women's volleyball team have done the country proud in team sports, while on the track, a Chinese man won a gold medal for the first time.