A journey of a thousand miles begins with breakfast in bed. Or it does for Britain's track and field athletes - but not if you are a swimmer.

Despite raft loads of lottery funding, UK athletes are slipping further and further adrift of the world leaders, and may take years to catch up.

Yet Britain's swimmers are a rising tide as a world force.

The contrast is about to become even more markedly evident. The Japan Open, the biggest international event of the summer swimming calendar, opens tomorrow in Chiba. On Saturday it's the first day of the World Athletics Champion-ships in Osaka. Both are billed as their respective sports' last major event before the Beijing Olympics. The world's finest competitors will be at each.

Climatic conditions in Japan will closely replicate what is anticipated in China less than a year from now.

The team of nearly 70 UK athletes (just two of them Scots) it's feared, could win no individual medals in Osaka. Even finalists will be in short supply. Contrast this with the bullish mood from the swimmers, of whom 20 are in Chiba - six of them Scots. I confidently predict more individual finalists from a swim team.

"It's got some high-calibre competitors, and we'll be expecting them to go well,"

says performance director Bill Sweetenham. "The team contains some real medal prospects for Beijing."

Both sports are headed by tough, and apparently uncompromising men. Athletics has former Royal Marine Dave Collins. Swimming's Sweetenham is an Aussie from a remote Queensland mining town, and a man of sufficiently independent mind to have left home with nothing more than his underpants to his name.

Both have imposed tough qualifying standards, and it's paid off for swimming. Athletics has yet to reap the benefit.

Of course, sports people like to feel special. But in Sweetenham's early days,when he took his charges to the European short-course championships, in Ireland, in 2003, he instructed hotel staff to offer restricted menus, leave beds unmade, and remove TV aerials. His bootcamp ethos allowed nobody to rest, taper off training, or shave.

This tough regime has continued. Dave Richards, press officer for British swimming said. "I can't comment on athletics' preparations, but all of ours are geared to Beijing," he said. "Everyone knows there are no luxuries in the athletes' village at the Olympics. It's spartan, very basic - more one-star youth hostel then five-star hotel. So swimmers are taught what to expect. There are no mini bars in the rooms of our hotels. It's not a prison here, but it's not luxurious.

"It can be a shock to the system, and some people don't react very well. People are told to bring their own mattress and pillow, if that makes them more comfortable. It's essential to have adequate rest."

Well, rest has been the order of the day in Macau, where Britain's track and field athletes are based prior to Osaka.

Tim Benjamin was the only male British athletics finalist two years ago at the world event in Helsinki. He was fifth in the 400 metres, but reckons there will be more finalists this time. "If you have people like Michael Rimmer, Andy Baddeley and Mo Farah, all that it takes is for them to produce. Marlon Devonish is also working well," he said yesterday.

The 25-year-old from Cardiff reckons preparations and the approach in Macau will help. "It's like a fresh atmosphere here. UK Athletics are really trying their hardest with every little detail. The acclimatisation expert said we should lie in for first two days, and they ordered us room service breakfast.

"You have to give a urine sample every day, to test hydration levels. They sought some advice about acclimatisation. It is the best-prepared camp I have been on. Breakfast is muesli, brown bread, fruit, bananas, and fruit juice. Little touches like that suggest they are trying their best.

"It's so well organised out here. The expertise is phenomenal. There are things that are shocking - they are so good. For something that is not the Olympics, UKA have created an Olympic atmosphere in the preparation which has been awesome.

"When you need medical back-up, you are given a time slot and your appointment is there. There are so many doctors at the track that you are never far away from medical support. Back in the hotel, if you need to see a medic, there is always someone there."

Even special recovery chairs have been installed. "They are like a fisherman's chair, where you can sit with your hands in pools of ice, and it cools the body temperature."

Benjamin, however, has not always had the best of back-up. His 2006 season was completely derailed by injury.

This year his season opener in Belgrade was spiked when an injection to resolve a hamstring problem nicked his spine.

He spent two days in hospital, and made a fairly tentative start in Glasgow, in June. He split with coach Colin Jackson, and only at the last minute did he achieve the individual qualifying time, in this month's London Grand Prix.

However he is now confident, and has faith in the new UKA regime. He's surprised at the efficiency of the high performance centre at Brunel University has become. "Before, it was just a track. Now you have a physio there the whole time, and strength and conditioning facilities. Dave Collins is doing a good job."

Well, the former Edinburgh University psychology professor and his new chief executive and chairman at UKA are about to face their first serious test together, starting on Saturday. Others in the team are less sure. Collins gave points out of 10 at the European event last year and got less than pass marks himself from some athletes, including current team captain Marlon Devonish.

There may be more sour than sweet for athletics in the Orient.

Vault has been opened up
THE czarina of the pole vault has been bored. Yelena Isinbayeva has been unchallenged since her World Championship bronze in 2003, writes Doug Gillon.

Since than she has won Olympic, European, and World indoor and outdoor gold, racking up 20 world records. She topped out at 5.01 metres to win the world crown in Helsinki two years ago. Her winning margin, 41 centimetres, was the biggest in the event's history. Male or female.

Her only other world mark since was indoors, a more modest 4.91m, in February last year, and she has been stuck on an unyielding plateau since. The former international gymnast confesses she was frustrated by the lack of a challenger. But that has changed, thanks to Jennifer Stuczynski.

The American has not only surpassed Stacey Dragila as US record-holder, but now former basketball player Stuczynski has equalled Svetlana Feofanova, making her joint second all-time.

Isinbayeva says this may be the motivation she needs. "The past two, maybe three years, I've only been competing against myself," she said, "but it's good that Jen jumped 4.88m, because that motivated me, that got me angry. It's given me a challenge . . . When you win every time, you lose your appetite. It's like someone who loves to eat chocolate, and eats it every day. Eventually you have so much that you hate it.

"I now have got that hunger again. I am hungry to compete with her."