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British Cycling executive director Peter King has welcomed the challenge of athletics to be Great Britain's top medal-earning sport at London 2012.

Team GB's cyclists captured 14 medals, including eight golds, from a possible 50 in Beijing - a 28 per cent share of the medals on offer.

While athletics returned from the Far East with just four, missing their UK Sport target of five, from a possible 133 - just three per cent of those won on the track and field.

But Great Britain were resurgent at August's World Athletics Championships, claiming six medals despite missing a host of big names, including Germaine Mason and Tasha Danvers, who claimed Beijing silver and bronze respectively.

And UK Athletics chief executive Niels de Vos responded by setting Britain's track and field stars a 10-medal target for 2012 on Monday.

More optimistically, de Vos challenged his troops to surpass cycling as Great Britain's top performer.

And King - who stepped down as chief executive of British Cycling in 2008 - insists it is high-time athletics returned to the limelight.  

We'll do what we can do and we'll do it to the best of our ability but we don't feel pressured by others, said King, who led Great Britain's cycling resurgence with performance director Dave Brailsford.

But the fact athletics have said we're going to be the biggest medal winners in London' is fantastic.

They have a lot more medal opportunities than us and if they can grasp that and win a bigger share of their available medals then that's great for Team GB.

 In a way we've prompted them to do that because I think there always has been a competitive spirit between the sports.

But we don't feel a pressure - we don't feel as though we're the ones who have to deliver the medals.

Meanwhile, Jonny Bellis is close to a return to the United Kingdom after a road accident last month.

The 21-year-old Manxman had just completed his first full season as a professional with Saxo Bank before being placed in a medically-induced coma following a crash on his motor scooter.

Jonny is doing really well since the last update and is communicating by writing messages on a white board, said a statement on British Cycling's website.

"They are looking into flying him to London shortly."

More than the Games / Eurosport