Athletics: Chambers out to erase trauma in Munich mind games

European Championships: British sprinter aims to recover from Commonwealth failure as team seek inspiration in women's 10,000 metres

The last time English interest focused upon the Olympic stadium here the startling talent of Michael Owen ensured a historically happy result.

Britain's athletes set out in the same arena today seeking to emulate the dramatic success of the 5-1 win. But, in track and field terms, they are already moving into extra time.

How well a team of 65 athletes can respond to the stimulus of a second major championship hard on the heels of the Commonwealth Games remains to be seen. Max Jones, the UK Athletics Performance Director, is understandably cautious, predicting 20 medal shots, and hoping for at least 14.

That estimate may have been adversely affected by yesterday's news that Nathan Morgan, winner of the Commonwealth long jump title, had withdrawn because of the foot injury which required an injection in Manchester. Morgan joined two other British athletes forced to pull out on the eve of competition – the pole-vaulter Nick Buckfield and the sprinter Pernicha James.

Of the remaining team, only two stand out as gold medal favourites – Paula Radcliffe, who runs the 10,000 metres tonight and Jonathan Edwards, who will be at pains to maintain his proud full set of world, Olympic, European and Commonwealth triple jump titles less than a fortnight after completing it.

Even they will not have it easy. Radcliffe faces strong opposition at 10,000m and, if she enters, 5,000m, while Edwards takes on two men who have beaten him this season – Sweden's Christian Olsson and his fellow Briton Phillips Idowu.

When these championships last took place in Germany – in Stuttgart 16 years ago – there were eight British gold medals. Four years ago in Budapest, Britain went one better in terms of winners. It will do well to manage as many this time around.

Colin Jackson, returning to the country where he set his world 110m hurdles record, might be expected to make his last planned outdoor championship appearance a golden one – but he cannot afford the slackness which saw him let the Commonwealth title disappear.

A month ago you could not have seen anyone but Dwain Chambers winning the 100m title. But following his traumatic experience in the Commonwealth final, where he cramped up and hopped out of contention, the 24-year-old Londoner – whose heats start today – is facing an unexpected challenge.

Although physiological testing has indicated that low levels of "kinase'' protein have been to blame for problems with hydrating his body and a new fluid replacement drink has been worked out for him, even his manager, the former Olympic athlete Jenny Stoute, admits the Manchester experience has left Chambers' mind "a bit blown''.

There is similar uncertainty about how Darren Campbell, the defending 100m champion, will perform at this and the longer sprint following his emotionally exhausting experiences at a Games on home territory. But Portugal's adopted Nigerian, Francis Obikwelu, could capitalise on any uncertainty, at 100m, as could Britain's European cup winner, Marlon Devonish, at 200m.

Questions over what success other highly talented British athletes might enjoy here relate to the more conventional topics of form and rivals. Steve Backley's hopes of earning a fourth consecutive javelin title will depend partly on the performance of his perennial rival, in the Czech Republic's Olympic champion Jan Zelezny, and on the two men who have broken 90m this season, Sergei Makarov of Russia and Konstantinos Gatsioudis of Greece.

Daniel Caines, who earned nothing in the Commonwealth 400m individual race despite breaking 45 seconds for the first time in his semi-final, can earn tangible reward here, although the giant home runner, Ingo Schultz, could deny him gold.

Michael East, relatively fresh from his outstanding Commonwealth 1500m win, will face runners such as Portugal's Rui Silva, who has run seven seconds faster than his best of 3min 37.35sec.

Chris Rawlinson has beaten all his main rivals here earlier in the season, but unless he can run faster than he did in winning the Commonwealth title, Stéphane Diagane, of France and Italy's Fabrizio Mori could profit.

Similarly, in the long jump, Britain's Chris Tomlinson – whose 8.27m British record in April still puts him top of this year's European rankings – needs to improve on his fitful showing in Manchester, where he could only finish sixth.

Kelly Holmes has medal opportunities at 800m and 1500m, and Ashia Hansen can add another triple jump title to the one she won in Manchester if she can replicate the 14.86m effort which puts her top of this year's world rankings.