Wales' Commonwealth Games medal haul of 31 in Manchester - including six golds - was the second best performance ever for a country that reached its peak in 1990 with 10 gold medals.

The Principality has plenty of reason to be hopeful for another successful campaign in Melbourne.

Several athletes of real pedigree will be representing Wales who will travel to the Commonwealth Games for the first time since the retirement of legendary hurdler Colin Jackson.

The team was badly hit by the news that one-lap specialist Tim Benjamin - who was seen as a gold medal prospect in the 400m - had withdrawn because of a groin injury but Catherine Murphy is a medal contender in the women's race.

Matt Elias (400m hurdles) needs no introduction to the discerning athletics public while Hayley Tullett is also a consistent performer in the 800m.

Elias will feature in a 4x400m relay team that will challenge for a medal although the withdrawal of Benjamin and Iwan Thomas means a gold is looking unlikely.

Gareth Warburton and Rhys Williams are set to take the other berths with the forth spot yet to be decided. In the 100m and 200m will be Newport sprinter Christian Malcolm who was world junior champion in both those events back in 1998.

The 26-year-old has not yet fully lived up to that early promise although he finished fifth in the 200m in the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Four years later he had the uncomfortable experience of missing out in the 4x100m Great Britain relay team that took the gold medal in Athens with Jason Gardener, Darren Jackson, Marlon Devonish and Mark Lewis-Francis getting the nod.

In the marathon, Wales will be represented by Tracey Morris who hails from Holyhead but got a lot of publicity in 2004 when, working in a Leeds opticians, she came from obscurity to post a time in the London marathon that qualified her for the Athens Olympics.

Morris was overlooked in the welter of publicity that surrounded Great Britain team-mate Paula Radcliffe's ill-fated bid for gold but, unlike the Englishwoman, she finished the race.

Perhaps the best swimmer in the Wales team is David Davies who won the silver medal at the 1500m freestyle event at the European Short Course Championships in Trieste.

Nicole Cooke - a World Championship silver-medallist last year - will hope to defend the gold medal she won in the road race in Manchester.

In the disability events, Wales will be represented by the redoubtable Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson who is arguably the most high profile disabled competitor in the world.

Grey-Thompson will be competing in the 800m wheelchair event in which she finished fourth in Manchester four years ago just months after giving birth to daughter Carys.

Her standing is so high that she has been recruited as team captain for Wales. Grey-Thompson's cv is truly astonishing as she has won 11 gold medals in the Paralympics, six London marathons and was even voted third in the 2000 BBC Sports Personality of the Year contest.