London Olympics countdown: 36 weeks to go

Women's GB handball team face tough test Four years of preparation will be put to the test this week at the London Handball Cup in Stratford, when Great Britain's women take on some of the world's best. The tournament is an Olympic test event – as much for the British players as for the 6,500-capacity Handball Arena, built at a cost of £44m. The British teams have been a steady work in progress since 2007, when Sir Steve Redgrave appealed for potential Olympians with athletic ability to fill the talent gap in certain sports to come forward for trials. One such sport was handball and, after building up a squad of players who have had to make huge sacrifices to reach the standard of commitment required to compete at the highest level, the women's team, which qualified via host-nation status, now have the opportunity to show they will be able to do much more than make up the numbers at next year's Games. "It's an exciting week ahead and it's a big chance to see what we are capable of against teams who will be at the Olympics," says Kelsi Fairbrother, who left school at 15 to follow her mum into a handball career that has taken her to Denmark where, now aged 22, she plays on the right wing for Team Esbjerg. The test event, which runs from Wednesday to Sunday at the Olympic Park, consists of six teams: Angola, China, Austria, Great Britain, Poland and Slovakia. Angola and China are the favourites and both will use the event as a valuable warm-up for next month's Women's World Handball Championship in Brazil. Is Fairbrother fazed by the pressure of playing against such tough opposition? "I really thrive off it. Playing against some of these teams offers a different challenge. They play a different style to what we're used to. It would be nice to get to the semi-finals but we have got to be realistic. We have recently beaten Slovakia and we have shown improvement against Poland and Austria. But we are ambitious and it will be great to show what we can do in our home arena." Tickets for the event are not on sale but local residents, schools, colleges and members of handball clubs are being given the chance to attend. Stars in their eyes The GB table tennis team will experience first-hand the quality they can expect to face next year when they take on a World All Stars team at London's ExCel Arena on Friday. The tournament will take place halfway through the ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals (imagine a Lilliputian version of the ATP World Tour Finals at the O 2 ) and feature some of the world's best players. England's men won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and there is hope that British table tennis can continue on an upward trajectory through to next summer's Games. The match features six British men and women and begins at 7pm as part of the London Prepares Series.