At the 2006 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Athletics Championships in Assen in the Netherlands, Brazil finished 17th in the medals table.

Yet in the athletics competition in the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, we were tenth.

We are growing and it is not by chance.

As has happened with the country itself in the international markets, Brazilian Paralympics has grown strong because of serious planning and administration.

The third place on the medal table that Brazilian Paralympic athletes achieved at the 2011 (IPC) World Athletics Championships in Christchurch really does show the emerging strength of the Brazil in the key sport of track and field.

Over two thirds of the delegation in New Zealand in January finished among the top three in their disciplines which is simply a result of the professional work that the Brazilian Paralympic Committee (BPC) and its coaches are doing as we move towards London 2012 and perhaps more importantly for us, Rio 2016.

In Christchurch, we fought hard for the third place in the medals table with Great Britain.

Great Britain are obviously the hosts of the next Games and are putting a lot of investment and work into their team's build up for the event so to finish ahead of them in Christchurch means that Brazil really is strong at the moment and can justifiably hope for good results in London.

But as hosts of the Rio 2016 Paralympics, which takes place 2,000 days from now, Brazil needs to learn how to transform the opportunity the Games provides into investment for our athletes development and performance.

We still have some fields and sports that are uncovered.

We are still trying to get the entire budget we need to have the best preparation for London.

With the budget we have today, we can certainly build well, but it is not the ideal one to achieve excellence.

And we want excellence.

Our goal in London is to improve from Beijing 2008 to at least ninth place in the medal table.

At the end of 2009, we put together a big strategic plan with all responsible sports federations.

To reach our goal, I know we will need to perform at our very best because the competition is so strong.

For example, at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics, we finished just behind Russia and Canada in the medal table and we know it will be extremely hard to overtake them at London 2012 because they are both investing so much into Paralympic sport.

However, the results we obtained in 2010, and now 2011, show though we are heading on the right path.

Each medal, each record broken, each personal best makes us believe that we can fulfil our plan.

Andrew Parsons is President of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee and an International Paralympic Committee Governing Board member.