Chris Carter is confident England's athletes can fly the flag at the Commonwealth Games which start today.

Despite the absence of top names like Paula Radcliffe and Kelly Holmes the chairman of selectors has set an ambitious target of 20 track and field medals in Melbourne.

Carter, who is also chairman of Brighton and Hove City AC, believes six of those medals can be gold and has not ruled out surpassing the bumper 29 medal haul achieved in Manchester four years ago.

That would provide a timely boost to the sport in this country after a disappointing World Indoor Championships where a weakened Great Britian team returned empty-handed from Moscow on Sunday for the first time in the 21-year history of the championships.

Carter said: "I think 20 medals is not an unreasonable target to set. I have sat down and worked out who I think should medal and it came to 24 so 20 might be on the conservative side.

"I don't want to put too much pressure on because there are a lot of good athletes here from other countries but the atmosphere within the England camp is very good.

"It would be a tremendous achievement if we could beat the 29 medals from Manchester. That will be difficult though because the team is smaller this time and we haven't got home advantage.

"The Australians will obviously be the ones to beat because they have got the biggest team. But the feeling over here is that they have filled it with no hopers just to ensure they have three athletes in each event.

"Our team might be smaller but the majority of them have got at least an outside chance of winning a medal.

"I don't want to say how many gold medals I think we can win because so much can happen over the next few weeks but I will say that I brought six England flags with me to hand out for laps of honours and I'm hoping some may get used twice."

Carter has been forced to readjust his targets due to the withdrawal of Radcliffe through injury last week but believes her absence will allow others to take centre stage.

The former Olympian has tipped young 400m runners Martyn Rooney and Christine Ohuruogu to burst onto the scene in Melbourne alongside established internationals Dean Macey and Jade Johnson.

He is also taking a special interest in the six-strong Sussex contingent at the Games - Mick Jones, Nick Buckfield, Claire Smithson, Gavin Thompson, Julia Bennett and Niobe Menendez - and is confident they can live up to expectations.

"I had a chat with most of them at a barbeque for the England team the other night and confidence was high," said Carter.

"Julia is in good form and Claire performed well here last week.

"Nick says he is clearing good heights in training but needs to reproduce it under pressure while Gavin seems to be very much up for the challenge."