Greaves, who recorded the F44 discus world record of 59.27 metres at the 2011 BT Paralympic World Cup, returns to the Manchester Regional Arena for this year's event on May 22 with realistic aspirations of a throw in excess of 60m.

The three-time world champion opened his 2012 campaign with an impressive indoor world best of 57.56m at the unique World Indoor Throwing meet in Sweden to underline his status as a gold medal favourite at the London 2012 Paralympics, which take place just over three months after the BT Paralympic World Cup.

"It's great to be part of the Aviva Great Britain and Northern Ireland team for this event in such an important year," says Greaves, who has broken the F44 discus World Record at the BT Paralympic World Cup on three occasions in recent years.

"The BT Paralympic World Cup gives me the best possible opportunity to compete against my rival athletes ahead of London 2012, not only on home soil but in front of home support and friends and family too.

"It is also one of my favourite places to throw, and I'm hoping to continue my world record breaking form this year in my final preparations for the Games."


Joining Greaves for the event is fellow world record holder and T42 200m world champion Richard Whitehead (pictured centre).

Whitehead, an equally brilliant marathon runner with a best time of 2 hours 42min 54sec, has made huge gains on the track in the past 18 months and clocked the 200m world record of 25.69 at the Aviva London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace last summer.

"Since then [Crystal Palace] I've been working hard with [coach] Keith [Antoine] to build up my sprint training and I feel in better shape now than pre-world record," Whitehead said.

"I'm doing so much more on the track than I've ever done before but I'm maintaining a weekly mileage of around 40 miles which I feel benefits me.

"It was the foundation of my success at the World Championships [in Christchurch in 2011 where Whitehead won gold] and I don't want to lose that.

"A lot of that track work has been about going back to basics.

"I was known to have a bit of a kamikaze style and I'm now looking to be more controlled with more efficient running mechanics.

"I'm really looking forward to getting out there in front of that crowd in Manchester.

"It should give me a good performance indicator for the next few months."


The two other world record holders in the team are wheelchair racer Hannah Cockroft (pictured), who will compete in the T34 100m, and Nathan Stephens, who will compete in the F55/56/57/58 seated javelin.

Also featuring is double Paralympic wheelchair racing champion Dave Weir and Peter Eriksson, the UK Athletics Paralympic head coach, said the event will be hugely important for his team as they prepare for London 2012.

"Everyone has been working hard over the winter to be in the best possible shape moving into this Paralympic Games year and we're all excited about getting out there to compete," Eriksson said.

"The BT Paralympic World Cup is an important competition in our schedule, because in addition to giving an opportunity to our more experienced athletes to lay down some markers against top quality opposition, it's a great chance for some of our developing athletes to experience world class international competition as they look further down the line to Rio 2016."

The BT Paralympic World Cup, which will run from May 22 to 26, is the largest annual international multisport competition in elite disability sport and will be broadcast by Paralympic host broadcaster Channel 4.

The event schedule will see the Manchester Regional Arena host athletics, wheelchair basketball and seven-a-side football, while international boccia and sitting volleyball matches will also take place.

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