Paralympic diary: Day 10

By Elizabeth Hudson
BBC Sport in Athens

Over 8,500 volunteers are working at 21 Paralympic venues or in the Village for the duration of the Games.

That's one of the fascinating statistics that gets fired at journalists covering the event on a regular basis.

Apparently, around 60% are female and over 93.5% of the total number are permanent residents of Greece.

When it comes to age, the vast majority of the volunteers are between 18-34 but there are 894 who are aged 55 and over.

They also appear to be an educated lot with 38.5% graduates of university while 12% have a postgraduate degree.

However, the volunteers, apart from their obsession with pin-collecting, also have a new toy to amuse themselves with - loud hailers.

In order to direct the flow of people into and out of venues, they are sitting on top of lifeguard-style high chairs with the loud hailers.

However, some seem to be using it as a way to flirt with spectators or even have conversations between themselves, which make no sense to anyone else!

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There was high drama during Sunday's men's class four table tennis semi-final between France and China.

China's Zhang Yan leaned forward in his wheelchair to get his bottle of water, got disorientated in the process and lost his balance.

After falling down, he could not move, sparking a swift medical response.

He was treated at the venue for around 15 minutes before being brought to hospital but the problem is not believed to be serious.

Zhang won gold in last Tuesday's class four singles in his first Paralympics.