Maltese athlete Antonio Flores has been successfully classified in Manchester, England, for the Paralympic Games in Beijing, China. The games are due to be held exactly after the Olympic Games in September.

Antonio left Malta last Friday morning, courtesy of Air Malta, to take part over the holiday week-end in the British Open Athletics Championships.

The 18 year old athlete has been training seriously, for a number of years and will now be the only athlete representing Malta in the Beijing Paralympic Games. Apart from Wheelchair Dancing, which is not held in the same format as athletics, Malta has not had any athletes representing them in the International Paralympic games for many years. A spokesperson for the Malta Paralympic Committee said “Hopefully this will change in the very near future”. Antonio will be leaving for China on 1 September and anybody interested in disabled sport or who could help sponsor him, should contact the MPC : [email protected]