Image: Mo Farah - one of Team GB's gold medallists

Team GB has beaten the medal target for the London 2012 Olympics set by high performance agency UK Sport after achieving its highest medal haul since 1908 with five days of the Games still remaining.

UK Sport chair Baroness Sue Campbell said: "It has been an incredible journey, since winning the Olympic bid in 2005, putting in place the foundations on which we have built a truly world class, sustainable, high performance system.

"The backing of The National Lottery and the Government over the past 15 years, and more recently, from Team 2012, have made available the critical investment which was needed."

UK Sport chief executive Liz Nicholl said: "Our 'conversion' of medals to gold medals in these Games has been outstanding - so much so that it's now feasible that we could even maintain the current third place in the table, which would be a truly amazing outcome."

Team GB chef de mission Andy Hunt said: "We have surpassed all of these aims and we are now continuing to strive on and be unrelenting until the end."

Sport minister Hugh Robertson added: "Bettering our medal count in Beijing, these incredible and inspirational performances in so many sports show the power of a well-managed, sustained and focussed funding programme."

UK Sport's target was to secure 48 medals across 12 sports, with the aspiration of coming fourth in the Games' Medal Table. At the end of 7 August, however, Team GB had 48 medals in 13 sports.

At the start of Day 12 (8 August), Team GB was placed third in the Medal Table with a total of medals one more than that achieved at the 2008 Games – 22 of which were gold.

Day 11 also saw Sir Chris Hoy become Britain's most decorated Olympian, after his gold medal in the keirin made it his sixth in total - surpassing rower Sir Steve Redgrave.

It was a bronze medal secured by Robbie Grabarz in the high jump that took Team GB past a tally of 47 medals from Beijing.

Team GB's best medal performance came at the 1908 London Olympic Games, in which it claimed a total of 146 medals - 56 of which were gold.

Click here for more information about UK Sport's minimum medal target for the London 2012 Olympic Games and click here for a breakdown of Team GB's historic performance.

Image: Citizen59