Deal preparing for Paralympics

Athlete Katherine Deal says she cannot wait to represent Great Britain at the Paralympics in Beijing and will use it as preparation for London 2012.

The 16-year-old from St Albans told BBC London 94.9: "I'm very excited, it'll be an amazing experience for me."

The visually impaired athlete has London 2012 as her main target.

"Beijing is going to be mainly for experience for me because I'm still only 16 so hopefully in London I'll be aiming for gold," she added.

Deal, who started running at the age of 12 will compete in the 400m, 800m and 1500m races and cannot wait for the experience.

"The team atmosphere of the Great Britain Paralympic team is amazing, meeting everyone else from all over the world, meeting new people and having the experience of being in china," she continued.

"The World Championships were only in Holland, obviously it was a massive event but in China there's just going to be so many more people and it's the Olympics and it's the big event everyone's been training for four years or all their life."