The eagerly anticipated ten-day competition, which is the most prestigious in the sport behind the Paralympic Games, takes place once every four years and will return to Britain for the first time since 1994 when they were held at Stoke Mandeville.

Birmingham play hosts to the competition after seeing off rival bids to stage the event from Paris and Vancouver back in October 2005 and Hunt claimed that the tournament will demonstrate the power of disability sport to inspire spectators.

Speaking at the launch event at the NIA, Hunt told insideworldparasport: "This event is hugely important.

"I was the [Shadow] Cabinet Minister for Disabled People before I took on the Culture, Media and Sport brief so it’s always been something that has been very close to my heart.

"With disability sport and the Paralympics in particular, you get that incredible hope, optimism and determination because every single one of these athletes has had to overcome what most people have never had to imagine in their lives.

"It’s just incredibly inspiring talking to them."

Hunt added that the new schools Olympic and Paralympic programme he announced earlier this week was designed as a way of to use elite athletes like those competing at the World Wheelchair Basketball Championships to inspire young children.

He said: "This is a wonderful event but what we really need to do is create a thread between what these elite athletes are doing and the disabled child who is in a school somewhere who may not have that sense of hope and optimism.

"That is why our school Olympics and Paralympics projects have been set up to use the success of our top athletes to inspire everyone in the country and particularly our school children."

Great Britain Wheelchair Basketball chief executive Charlie Bethel added: "It’s great to have Jeremy here.

"His commitment to Paralympic sport is really strong and he is going to drive that forward heading into London 2012 so it is fantastic to see him here and demonstrating his support for this event."

Meanwhile, Britain’s men’s coach Murray Treseder, whose team are on a high after winning gold at the BT Paralympic World Cup in May, stated that his side our aiming to use the Championships as preparation for the London 2012 Games.



Treseder said: "It’s great to play at home as we want to get use to turning the home crowd into our sixth man.

"This is obviously a really important event in our four year cycle leading into London 2012 and we are confident we can do well here.

"It was a great confidence boost to win at the BT Paralympic World Cup but that has no bearing on what happens here so we are not really thinking about that anymore."

Treseder’s star player Jon Pollock added the team already have one eye on 2012 but are confident of doing well in Birmingham.

He said: "When you see all the posters up around Birmingham with our faces on, you do start to get excited.

"This competition is part of our preparation to 2012 but we’ve got high expectations of what we want to do here and I think it is fair to say that we are up there with the best in the world.

"But who delivers on the day is a different matter."

For the Britain women’s coach Gary Peel, the competition is very much part of the preparations for London 2012 as he looks to play a young team throughout the event.

Peel said: "Its fantastic being at home and getting ready for London 2012 with two years out.

"This competition is very much a stepping stone for London 2012 for us because I’ve got six girls under 21 competing so we are really looking to build up their experience ahead of the 2012 Games."

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