Team NI at paralympics

Ten NI Paralympic hopefuls in contention for London

By Leo McGann BBC Sport NI

The nights might be cool and the skies grey but summer is almost here and with it comes the spectacle and thrill of London 2012.

Much of the build-up has revolved around the return of the Olympics to the UK capital after 64 years but there is also rising anticipation ahead of London's first Paralympic games.

These will be the biggest ever staged and athletes from Northern Ireland are set to feature prominently.

Ten local athletes are currently in contention to compete: eight for Ireland, and two for Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Competing for Ireland, Jason Smyth and Michael McKillop are already two of the biggest names in Paralympic sport.

Partially-sighted Smyth won the T13 100 and 200 metres in Beijing and like Oscar Pistorius, hopes to compete in track and field in both games this summer.

Earlier this week, Glengormley's McKillop became the first man to break a world record in the Olympic Stadium and he is the favourite for T37 800 metres and 1500 metres with the metric mile featuring in the London programme - unlike four years ago.

Schoolgirls Bethany Firth and Sally Brown have far less experience but the medals and reputations they have earned in their short careers make them live contenders.

NI Paralympic contenders

• Team Ireland
• Jason Smyth - defending T13 100m and 200m champion
• Michael McKillop - T37 800m champion from 2008
• Bethany Firth - European freestyle 200m swimming silver medallist
• James Hamilton - S14 swimming hopeful
• Stephen Campbell - S11 swimmer hoping to compete in second Paralympics
• Laurence McGivern - S9 swimmer competed in 2010 Commonwealth Games
• Eilish Byrne - Eighth in equestrian event in Beijing
• Andrew Fitzgerald - Irish cycling 4K pursuit record holder
• Team GB & NI
• Sally Brown - T46 200m world bronze medallist
• Sharon Vennard - GB Archery team member

Firth, who is only 15, hopes to represent Ireland in swimming and last year took silver in the S14 200m Freestyle at the European Championships.

Sprinter Brown from Ballykelly, also 15, is one of youngest members of the British squad and won a bronze medal in the T46 200 metres at the 2011 IPC World Championships.

The Irish Team will be announced on 28 June, and that day will make its way to Antrim for a pre-games training camp, the first to take place in Northern Ireland.

The British team, which is likely to number 300-350 compared to Ireland's 40-42, is being announced on a more gradual basis, with 102 named already and the final selection to be confirmed in mid-July.

Liam Harbinson, CEO of Paralympics Ireland, says this year's Irish team will receive unprecedented levels of support from the Irish Sports Council and Sport NI.

"This is at a whole different level than ever before," Harbinson told BBC Sport NI.

"To support the team in Beijing about 80 to 100 people travelled out to China.

"This time each athlete will have around 50 family and friends travelling. Everyone in Ireland will get a chance to see the games."

Harbinson feels that there has been progress since Beijing and that there is more of an interest in disabled sport which the exposure of London will only increase.

"One initiative we ran after Beijing was a programme called Paralliance - purely to try and get young people into a sport suitable to their impairment.

"We ran an event in May 2009 expecting about 50 people to turn up, we had over 400.

"Some of those were fast tracked. We reckon five or six of our team will have been introduced to their sport on that day. We are going to run a similar programme straight after London."