Saturday night's Opening Ceremony marked the beginning of the Paralympic Games for over 4000 athletes competing in Beijing. About a quarter of these will be contesting the Athletics events at the Bird's Nest and have one more day to fine tune their techniques before competition begins on Monday, September 8.
Athletics stars from across the globe have been completing their final training routines at the National Stadium warm-up venue. On Monday the Bird's Nest arena will be transformed, and the first 10 Paralympic Athletics gold medals will be decided.
Altogether 1041 athletes will compete in the Athletics competition which runs through to the morning of the Closing Ceremony (September 17) when the final five gold medals, in the marathon, are decided. Eighteen morning and evening sessions (encompassing 401 heats and finals) will decide the winners of 160 Paralympic Athletics gold medals.
The Athletics competition includes track and road events (100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 10000m, 4x100m, 4x400m and Marathons); field events (Long Jump, High Jump, Triple Jump, Javelin, Shot Put, Discus Throw and Club Throw); and Pentathlon events.
Athletes compete according to their functional classifications in each event. Classes 11, 12 and 13 cover the different levels of visual impairment of an athlete. Class 20 covers athletes with an intellectual disability. Classes 32-38 covers athletes with different levels of cerebral palsy -- both wheelchair (32-36) and ambulant (35-38). Classes 40-46 cover ambulant athletes with different levels of amputations and other disabilities (les Autres). Classes 51-58 cover wheelchair athletes with different levels of spinal cord injuries and amputations.
One country that is likely to be competitive across all 10 days of competition is the host nation, China. At the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, China finished with 58 athletic medals (including 25 gold, 20 silver and 13 bronze).
These impressive results helped China to the top of the overall medal rankings in Athens (with 141 medals -- 63 gold, 46 silver and 32 bronze). There is no doubt that they will be looking to replicate, and use their home-ground advantage to extend, these results in Beijing.
Thirty-eight Athletics competitors will celebrate their birthdays during the Paralympic Games and will be hoping to pick up the ultimate present -- a gold medal.
(BOCOG September 7, 2008)