The Games start on September 6, just under two weeks after the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games.

Wheelchair basketball players Jill Fox, Joanne Harper (both Sheffield), Kevin Hayes (Rotherham) and Pete Finbow (Dewsbury), table tennis players Cathy Mitton (York) and Sue Gilroy (Barnsley), archer Danielle Brown (Skipton), wheelchair tennis player Alex Jewitt (Sheffield) and cyclist David Stone (Leeds) are all part of the 206-strong ParalympicsGB team for Beijing.

Thirty-three year-old Finbow and Hayes - who turns 45 during the Paralympics - were both part of the men's wheelchair basketball team that took bronze at the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games.

Thirty-eight year-old Jill Fox has been part of the women's wheelchair basketball team at the Paralympics for the past three Games and is one of the more experienced members of the squad, while Joanne Harper, aged 43, will make her Games debut in Beijing.

Beijing will also be the first Paralympics for 20 year-old archer Danielle Brown, the current women's open compound world champion; and 32-year-old wheelchair tennis player Alex Jewitt.

Table tennis players Mitton and Gilroy have both competed at two previous Paralympic Games, with Mitton winning individual bronzes at both Sydney and Athens. More recently the pair competed at the M2006 Commonwealth Games with Gilroy taking gold and Mitton bronze.

Leeds cyclist David Stone, made his Paralympic debut in Sydney 2000 and now returns to the ParalympicsGB team for his second Games. He travels to Beijing confident of his ability having won two golds at the world championships in Bordeaux in 2007.

ParalympicsGB will be represented in 18 of the 20 sports at the Beijing Games, including five-a-side football for the first time at the Paralympics and rowing, which makes its Games debut.

The Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games opens on September 6 and closes on September 17. At the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games, Britain finished second in the medal table with a total of 35 golds, 30 silver and 29 bronze medals.

With competitive standards continually rising and the dominant Chinese team taking the home advantage ParalympicsGB recognises that the 2008 Paralympics will be one of its biggest challenges yet.