Smyth going for golds

The 25-year-old, who is the Usain Bolt of the Paralympics world, has got over his disappointment of not getting selected by Ireland for London 2012, is now turning his attention to retaining his Paralympics gold medals, which he won in Beijing in 2008.

Smyth who runs in the T13 100 metres round one at 9.30pm on Friday and if all goes well then the final takes place on Saturday at 8pm, as for the T13 200 metres, he starts his defence on Thursday, September 6 at 10.55am, with the semi-final taking place later that evening at 10.10pm and the final on Friday, September 7 at 7.50pm and all the action will be shown live on Channel 4.

The Liverpool supporter goes into the London games knowing he has a good chance of retaining his titles.

“I think sitting around watching the Olympics and seeing the buzz of it all and that there’s so much going on, it’s made the build up to the Paralympics very exciting,” he admitted.

“Watching all the success and that, it’s just a case now of, ‘Come on, let’s get going.’

“The training camp was good because it was important to get away from distractions and to be able to focus solely on training.

“Obviously I was competing for Olympic qualification so I think that training will hold me in good stead going into the Paralympics. I’m a lot quicker than I was as so I’m looking forward to getting out there now and showing what I can do.”

In the Bird Nest Stadium in Beijing the visually-impaired athlete also secured two world paralympics world records and with the London track also fast those fast times could be shattered.

“I don’t get too caught up about records,” the laid back sprinter stated, “Championships are just about beating people, beating whoever’s next to you. That’s your target, it’s about coming in ahead of the field and getting a gold medal. Anything after that, records or whatever, they’re just a bonus.

“You can’t take anything for granted, particularly in the Paralympics. Most athletes, the same as myself, would generally just compete in the national competitions with everyone else so it’s not like you can keep track of people who will be in main category because you just don’t know.

“You don’t get to see what people are up too and they slip under the radar and, if you use me as an example, I came out of nowhere. I’m sure people were thinking, ‘Who the heck is this Irish guy?’ And that’s the way it is because you don’t know until the first race and that could easily happen to me out in London.”