HEAD coach of the British Athletics Paralympic programme, Paula Dunn, has called on her 41-member team competing in Rio to capitalise on Russia’s absence and sweep up some of the medals on offer.
The Russian Paralympic Committee was issued a blanket ban from competing in the 2016 Paralympic Games by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) after it was implicated in a report on behalf of the World Anti-Doping Agency accusing the country’s government of conducting a programme to systematically subvert international doping controls.
Medal expectations set for the British Paralympic athletics squad range from 28 to 34, putting them in the ballpark of the 29 achieved four years ago in London.