Team England returned an impressive medal haul in Manchester four years ago and will have their sights set on emulating that in the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

The team won 54 gold, 51 silver and 60 bronze medals and all the signs are pointing to continued success this time around with a host of athletes set for glory.

England's athletics team will be without arguably the most high profile star of recent times after double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes announced her retirement last year.

Talented young middle-distance runner Marilyn Okoro has taken Holmes' place in the squad and the 21-year-old is expected to shine.

Dame Kelly was initially included in the England team to run the 800m and to defend her 1500m title, but announced her retirement, leaving a 800m berth open for Okoro.

The 2002 champion Chris Rawlinson will defend his 400m hurdles title despite missing the majority of the 2005 season.

The 33-year-old has already tasted victory in Melbourne, winning at the IAAF Grand Prix in 2005.

Decathlete Dean Macey is expected to put the disappointment of 2002 behind him and challenge for a medal after the 27-year-old was forced to pull out in Manchester with a hamstring injury two weeks before the start of the Games.

He also missed the 2005 season with a knee injury but is raring to go in Melbourne.

Kelly Sotherton will be hoping to emulate her bronze medal at the Athens Olympics with a similar performance in Melbourne.

Sotherton finished seventh in the heptathlon in 2002 and may also double-up in the long jump.

But Commonwealth 1500m champion Michael East will not defend his title after withdrawing from the event with an Achilles problem.

In contrast, reigning swimming champions Rebecca Cooke and James Gibson are set to defend their titles won in Manchester.

Cooke gets an opportunity to defend her two titles - the 400m and 800m freestyle - while breaststroke specialist James Gibson bids to defend his 50m crown.

Melbourne also sees 35-year-old sprint specialist Mark Foster return to action at his sixth Commonwealth Games.

The 1986 Games in Edinburgh were Foster's first major international championships and he came away with a bronze relay medal.

The University of Bath Swimming Club member has since competed in Auckland in 1990, Victoria in 1994, Kuala Lumpur in 1998 and at Manchester 2002 - winning medals on every occasion.

Fran Halsall is among the England contingent making her Commonwealth Games debut in Melbourne.

The 15-year-old struck gold in the 100m freestyle title at the European Junior Championships in Budapest last July, when she also won silver in the 50m freestyle and bronze in the 4x200m freestyle relay, making her the most successful British athlete at the meet. She recently featured on a shortlist of three for the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year Award.

Olympic gold medallist Jason Queally heads a powerful Team England cycling team.

Queally, gold medallist in the kilometre time-trial at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, is likely to renew his rivalry with Scotland's Chris Hoy in that event.

Hoy won the 1km title in Athens and pipped Queally to gold at the Manchester Commonwealth Games four years ago, but Queally took silver ahead of Hoy at the World Track Championships in Los Angeles in March.

England can also field the team pursuit quartet that won gold at the World Track Championships - Steve Cummings, Rob Hayles, Paul Manning and Chris Newton all feature in the team for Melbourne.

Victoria Pendleton, winner of the women's sprint title at the 2005 Worlds, returns to Commonwealth Games action in Melbourne, after just missing out on the medals in Manchester.

England also have strong medal hopes in the mountain biking event.

Liam Killeen won bronze as a 20-year-old at Manchester 2002 - his first senior international event.

He finished fifth the 2004 Olympics and was the highest placed Commonwealth rider in the mountain bike event at the 2005 World Cup Series, finishing ninth overall.

Olympic medallists Pete Waterfield and Leon Taylor head up England's diving squad, with the pair hoping for continued success.

Waterfield goes against Taylor as he aims to defend his 10m platform title before the Athens silver-medallists pair up in the synchronised event. The pair won Britain's first medal at the Athens Olympics and will be hoping for repeat success as the event is added to the Commonwealth schedule for the first time.

Manchester 2002 1m and 3m springboard silver medalist Tony Ally is also included in the squad.

Welterweight Neil Perkins will aim to add Commonwealth Games gold to his World Championships bronze medal when he steps into the ring in Melbourne.

Perkins became only the third English boxer to medal at the senior World Championships when he won bronze in China.

The 26-year-old Kirkdale ABC fighter was named the Amateur Boxing Association of England's senior boxer of the year in October.

Manchester flyweight silver medalist Darren Langley and Commonwealth Youth Games gold medal winner James Bendigo will also head Down Under in search of boxing success.

Sharp-shooter Mick Gault is bidding to become England's most successful athlete of all time as he looks to improve on his 11 medals won so far.

The 51-year-old, two medals behind swimmer Karen Pickering's record, competes in six events in Melbourne gunning for continued medal success.

Gault will partner Bedford's Nick Baxter in the 10m air pistol pairs as the duo aim to defend the titles they won together in both Kuala Lumpur and Manchester.

The England team also features Mike Babb, another gold medallist in 2002, Charlotte Kerwood, who struck gold in the women's double trap singles aged just 15 and Richard Faulds, a gold medallist at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.