Welsh chief rues Olympic deficit

Roles is Wales' only female track and field athlete for Beijing

The chief executive of Welsh athletics says it is disappointing that just two competitors from Wales have been named in the Great Britain Olympic squad.

Only Philippa Roles, who competes in the discus, and sprinter Christian Malcolm will travel to Beijing.

But Matt Newman says that although things are tough now the situation will be much better come the 2012 Olympics.

"There is huge disappointment in Welsh athletics, particularly for those athletes who are injured," he said.

The likes of 400m runners Tim Benjamin and Rhys Williams had to pull out of contention for Team GB places through injury.

Despite the disappointing Welsh contingent at this year's Games, Newman insists that things will be very different in four years' time.

"We have started the Welsh Talent Development Academy and have 14 athletes there at the moment and we have some really promising athletes coming through from there," Newman added.

606: DEBATE How do you think the Welsh duo will fare at the Olympics?

"The aim of the Academy is to allow athletes to develop properly and progress to a world-class level.

Welsh Olympic athlete Kirsty Wade, who competed at the Seoul and Barcelona games, described the fact that there are only two Welsh athletes in the team as "sad".

But she admitted that is it not surprising that there has been a dip in form as modern children have more demands on their time and participation in sport suffers as a result.

She said: "I grew up in mid-Wales, there were no computers and I walked or ran to school so I always had a good base level of fitness.

"Nowadays there are so many activities for children to do they may not become involved in sport. We need to get participation levels up so we can encourage more young people to get involved.

"The we can start to identify those with the potential to rise to the top," she added.