"We want to win here," Lee told insidethegames.

"But if we have a choice of winning here and the Olympics we're picking the Olympics.

"We have come here physically on a route to the Olympics - it's an exceptionally big moment in sport...the thing we are playing towards."

When Lee says his team are physically on a route to the Olympics, he is referring to the heavy weights training his squad have been doing, which he admitted may affect their speed in New Zealand, but would ensure they were at their peak physicall next summer. 

Britain will get their Champions Trophy campaign underway on the opening day of the tournament tomorrow, when they face Pakistan.

They then take on Australia, whom England lost to in the final of last year's Champions Trophy, and finish with a clash against Spain.

"We can win it," declared Lee, adding that "there's nobody in the tournament we haven't beaten."

He added that he thought there would be surprises in the competition, with different teams at varying stages of their preparations for the London 2012 Olympic Games, and some having not yet qualified for the competition.

Australia, who have won the tournament for the last three years, are the favourites, but Lee is looking for his squad, who have risen steadily up the world rankings to their current fifth position over the last six years, to cause them problems when they meet.

"Australia can definitely win it but people can beat them," said Lee, who earlier this week told insidethegames that his current squad was "probably the strongest ever."

"We beat [Australia] in the first game of the World Cup last year and our ambition is to start beating the top teams regularly."

Lee says his squad are not as used as their rivals to the position where they are expected to compete for medals, but he believes they will thrive under the pressure.

"We are relatively new to being considered a medal contender – most other countries here have been considered medal contenders forever.

"We were ranked 11 in 2005 and will be 4 by December, so in terms of expectation the pressure has felt quite significant and we are doing a lot of work to ensure we flourish under those pressures."

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