The Paralympians have already arrived in Paris and held their first training sessions in a positive atmosphere, preparing for the start of competition at the weekend.
Four out of eight Latvian athletes will debut at the Paralympic Games, and two of them are track and field athletes. They are javelin thrower and shot putter Raivo Maksims and shot putter Emils Dzilna, who have already tried out the training stadium. Both athletes are coached by legendary javelin thrower, European junior champion Ināra Aperāne.
Aperāne told Latvian Television that the first impressions of Paris are very good. Transport and accommodation matters are well arranged, which helps them not to worry unnecessarily about various surrounding circumstances.
At the age of 24, Dzilna, from Dobele, won a silver medal in the shot put at the World Championship this year. The partially sighted athlete feels better in Paris than at the World Championships, and the results are also better, which pleases him. Dzilna hopes to reach the 16-meter mark at the Paralympic Games, but will consider all results above 15 meters a good achievement.
"I hope that there will be a really good result in the competition on Saturday. You could see in training that all [attempts] were further than in the world championship, and I was quite happy about that," said Dzilna. "I would like to be in the top three and take home a medal, but improving my personal best would also be a great thing – to overcome myself."
The starts of Latvian athletes can be watched live on LTV7 and LSM.lv. For the first time, a Latvian Television film crew will cover the events of the Paralympic Games in person.