With the superb performances of Team GB at the Olympics still fresh in the memory, it’s the turn of the Great Britain Paralympic team to take centre stage in Beijing over the next 10 days following Saturday’s opening ceremony.

And among the Great Britain contingent is 30-year-old James Morgan, from Deal, who is a member of the GB mixed coxed four in the adaptive rowing events.

Rowing is making its Paralympic Games debut in Beijing, and its introduction has presented the former Deal Rowing Club captain with the chance to sample a global sporting experience which he could only have dreamt about little more than a year ago.

He qualifies for the Paralympics because of a lifelong problem with his right ankle, which culminated in a major operation in September 2006, but it was only after he returned to rowing with Deal Rowing Club last year that James was made aware he could be eligible for selection for Team GB in Beijing.

He said: "While I was rowing for Deal at last year's South Coast Championships I bumped into Alastair McKean, from Herne Bay, who was already in the GB Paralympic squad.

"And, after I told him about my operation, he said he thought I could qualify for the Paralympics and then Alastair's coach, Chad King, who is also the GB adaptive rowing head coach, rang me and invited me for a trial and a classification.

"There are criteria to classify all the athletes, and they decided that I easily qualified for the category for people with a leg, trunk or arm disability. They said I wasn't even a borderline case, which I thought I might be."

McKean is also in Morgan’s crew along with Vicki Hansford from Farnborough, and Naomi Riches from north London, plus cox Alan Sherman.

The heats of the mixed coxed four are on Tuesday, with the final on Thursday (September 11), and BBC2 will be showing an hour’s highlights from the Paralympics each midweek evening.