All those medals Britain won at the London Olympics and Paralympics in 2012 were not a coincidence.

True, you must never underestimate the dedication and quality of so many sportsmen and women who did the country proud.

It isn’t just the Olympics – throughout sport British sporting performance has improved beyond all recognition.

The medal achievements at the Winter Olympics in Sochi earlier this year were evidence of that.

All this success can be traced back to 1993 when then prime minister John Major set up the state-franchised National Lottery which was launched 20 years ago this month.

A host of good causes have benefited and I suspect the sport-loving Mr Major himself will be proud those rewards have been so evident as in the world of sport.

As the Lottery Good Causes website proudly boasts, every time you play the National Lottery you help British sport – in particularly allowing athletes to train full-time.

This week the latest list of athletes receiving lottery funding from UK Sport was released, based on “podium level” or “podium potential level” and the likes of Mo Farah, Martyn Rooney and Harry Aikines-Aryeetey are on it.

The regular story is about which athletes aren’t on it.

The glaring omissions this week included Jo Pavey – despite her outstanding form she felt this week she was “probably too old” to get it.

Meanwhile, 35-year-old wheelchair racer David Weir apparently opted not to be part of the funding programme, with Paralympic head coach Paula Dunn stressing he already had a great set-up at his training base in Kingston.

With other big name athletes the wrong side of 30 being left out, it does raise the question as to how some of the more difficult decisions are made.

Who gets what and why needs to be as transparent as possible but that should not overshadow how much good the lottery has done for sport.