The Paralympic Games have got underway in a celebratory but low-key opening ceremony in Tokyo.

Fireworks and acrobatics opened the Games in the empty stadium, after rising Covid cases prevented any spectators from attending.

Delegations from 162 nations, including the refugee team, entered the stadium earlier today and will compete in a range of sports, including boccia, powerlifting, taekwondo and goalball.

At the last games in Rio de Janeiro, ParalympicsGB placed second with 67 gold medals and 147 overall.

Over 200 British athletes will compete across 19 sports in the games this year, so who are our Paralympic hopefuls this year? The Argus has compiled a list of who to watch out for over the next two weeks.

Making his Paralympic debut, 23-year-old Littlehampton athlete Lewis Edwards will be competing alongside the rest of ParalympicsGB’s squad in the men’s wheelchair basketball. Lewis was part of Britain’s winning side in the under-23 world championship in Toronto in 2017 and now gets to perform at the pinnacle of international sport.

Also representing Sussex in ParalympicsGB is Bognor boccia star Louis Saunders who, at 19-years-old, will be the youngest member of the nation’s nine-strong team. Having realised wheelchair tennis wasn’t for him, he turned to boccia and won silver at the European Championships in 2019, alongside two other British Paralympians.

Also among Britain’s boccia athletes is David Smith, competing in his fourth Paralympic Games. Having won four medals in his three previous Games, including team gold in Beijing in 2008, he will be eyeing up a podium finish in Tokyo once again.

Great Britain is sending a record number of female athletes to this year’s Paralympics, and among them is 14-time gold medal winner Dame Sarah Storey. She will be competing in her eighth games in cycling for her chance to become Britain’s most successful Paralympian.

Many British Paralympic stars will be going for gold again in Tokyo, including David Weir and Jonnie Peacock in athletics, wheelchair sprinter Hannah Cockcroft and para-swimming sensation Ellie Simmonds - who first won gold in 2008 at the Beijing Games aged just 13.

Defending his title from five years ago in table tennis is 33-year-old Will Bayley, while world champion Amy Truesdale is one of the clear favourites for women’s taekwondo as the sport makes its Paralympic debut.

Switching sports from 2016’s Paralympics is Charlotte Henshaw. Having won breaststroke silver and bronze in London and Rio respectively, she has now taken to canoeing, where she was undefeated internationally in the 2019 season - winning gold in the European and World Championships.

Despite increased funding for Paralympic sport and podium finishes in the medal table in every Games this century, ParalympicsGB has set a low bar for the team following the struggles athletes have had during the pandemic.

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