Paralympic Potential or Talent ID days - designed to unearth new stars - have been hosted at various locations across Britain since 2007 and have proven extremely successful so far.

Between 40 and 50 per cent of attendees have been identified as having talent and around 30 individuals currently train on elite sports programmes.

The next Paralympic Potential Day takes place at Sheffield on Wednesday (November 10) with over 50 disabled people hoping they have the ability to be a future Paralympian.

Lane said such days are crucial if Britain is to maintain its supremacy over the likes of the United States, Australia and Canada at the Paralympics.

In an exclusive blog for insideworldparasport, Lane said: "Britain has finished second on the medal table at the last three Paralympic Games [with China victorious at the last two competitions] but our position as a leading nation in Paralympic sport is hard-earned and at each Games the competition gets tougher.

"We know that 2012 will be a huge challenge and with many nations setting their sights on toppling us from second place, we know we will need the best possible team in order to take on the world in London.

"We recognise that in the world of disability sport, the ParalympicsGB brand can act as a magnet to encourage people to try sports they may not have considered.

"As a result we have hosted Paralympic Potential days with our sports since 2007.

"These days complement sports' own Talent ID programmes but differ in that they are multisport environments designed to give people the opportunity to try out several sports in one day.

"They are designed to identify those individuals who have the raw talent and determination to be potential athletes and Paralympians, and they have been very successful - several athletes are training with GB squads as a direct result of attending one."

The Paralympic Potential days have discovered talents such as rowing stars Ryan Chamberlain and Kelsie Gibson, who made up two of the Great Britain mixed adaptive coxed four that won silver at the World Championships in New Zealand.

Lane added: "We have also worked with our colleagues at UK Sport and the EIS on the Paralympic Potential campaign and we are already starting to see the results of our combined efforts in the numbers of new athletes on programmes.

"So it is with great excitement that we will host our next Paralympic Potential day on Wednesday."

Attendees will be put through their paces by coaches from numerous Paralympic sports where they will hope to emulate the success of other Yorkshire Paralympians such as Sheffield-based table tennis player Will Bayley and York's archery star Danielle Brown.

Several applicants for the day have come from Battle Back, the Ministry of Defence's programme for the rehabilitation of injured servicemen and women.

For the majority of Battle Back attendees, the day will provide an opportunity to find out more about disability sport at a recreational level, although some have actually been identified as potential Paralympians in the past and are currently training with GB squads.

Tier Two London 2012 sponsor Cadbury is supporting the talent day and supplying employee volunteers.

To read the full blog click here.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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