Devil's Island! Now we're cooking as athletes sweat at Macau training camp

On hearing they are banned from its beaches and casinos, or even from going out alone, athletes arriving at Britain's Olympic holding camp in the Orient's Las Vegas might think it sounds more like Tenko than a seaside resort.

But don't expect any complaints from the 150-plus contingent basing themselves here before heading for Beijing.

Cocooned in their hotel's sealedoff second floor, with their own dining room, menus, Australian haute cuisine chef, play rooms and cyber cafe, the British are being cossetted as much as any team of multimillion pound footballers.

Full stretch: goalkeeper Beth Storry feels the heat in a hockey workout in Macau

Plain-clothed police patrol their floor, keeping out the hotel's other guests. A computer games room and pool tables keep them amused when they are not training, and, if BBC TV can sort it out in the next 24 hours, they will even be able to keep up with EastEnders. All with the goal of gold in Beijing.

The gaming tables on this island of casinos may be off limits to athletes, coaches and support staff but this is a £1million gamble by the British Olympic Association to ensure our team is as well prepared as any when they arrive in the Chinese capital.

Camp director Bernie Cotton chose Macau four years ago after researching alternatives in Bangkok, Seoul, Japan and other parts of China.

The local council has closed off sports halls and playing fields for them and opened special diplomatic channels through which they and their luggage pass unhindered.

Best foot forward: Beth Tweddle settles in at the Macau training hall

The objective is to give them time - one day minimum for each of the seven hours of time difference - to adjust their body clocks after the 15-hour journey by air and hydrofoil to this former Portuguese city an hour from Hong Kong.

They will also acclimatise to the conditions they can expect in Beijing. On Monday, Britain's women hockey team played a practice match against New Zealand in Hong Kong. The temperature on the pitch peaked at 37C and humidity at 78 per cent.

'Like playing in an oven,' said forward Sarah Thomas. There were more substitutions than former England football coach Sven Goran Eriksson ever employed, as there will be in the real matches in Beijing.

Forwards look like they are caught in a revolving door, rotated so they are not on the field for more than six minutes at a time. Only goalkeeper Beth Storry stays all 70 minutes.

Once off the field they are sprayed with iced water, blown from their faces by high speed fans to simulate sweating, and the entire team change every item of clothing at halftime.

Guiding hand: the women's gymnastics team are put through their paces

'Half-time team talks are interesting,' jokes coach Danny Kerry. 'You are sweating constantly. You just can't get rid of it,' said defender Crista Cullen, who is more used to it than most because her parents live on a 20,000 acre farm in Kenya.

The 16-woman squad spent almost a month working out for 35 minutes at a time in heat chambers at Bisham Abbey before coming out here.

The latest aids to success are orange contact lenses - 'devil's eyes', the team call them - to make the white ball stand out and cut the glare of the sun. Before that, it was GPS to check how far each player ran in a match.

'I saw on Sky, Frank Lampard does 11km in 90 minutes. Well, my women do nine kilometres in 55 minutes, so my lot cover the ground much faster than him,' said Kerry.

The British women like to see themselves as Olympic outsiders, if only because they open against defending champions Germany. But in an unguarded moment, Kerry said: 'When we play really well, we know we are not far off it.'

And, however far off it the British are in Beijing, it will not be because of their preparations. Those are spot on.