Paralympics Ireland High Performance director David Malone believes that Team Ireland are in great shape ahead of the start of the Rio Paralympics.
The 2016 Palympic Games get underway tonight on RTÉ2 at 10pm with live coverage of the Opening Ceremony from the Maracana Stadium in Rio.
Ireland have medal hopes across the board, none more so than on the track where Jason Smyth and Michael McKillop are both seeking to defend the gold medals they won at London 2012.
Despite some bumps in the road for McKillop, who has had a few injury niggles after winning at the 2015 World Championships in Doha, Malone believes both runners are hitting form at the right time.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, he said: "Both Jason and Michael decided not to compete at the European [Championsphips] this summer as part of their preparations so they’ve had a different competition pathway here.
"Jason is in tremendous form coming in this. Michael had a number of slight injury concerns at the start of last year and this year, he’s had an indifferent run-in to these games.
"But preparations has gone well for both lads, they’re big time performers, they’ve delivered on the world stage at previous Paralympic games so they know what all this is about.
"I think this whole athletics team now are in a very good place and are putting in their final preparations in the coming days."
Malone also expects a big display from Greta Streimikyte although he does admit that these games may come a bit too early to place medal expectations on the 1500m runner.
"I think Greta is a tremendous athlete, is probably one of our athletes that we’re looking at for Games experience.
“Greta has a great career ahead of her and really our focus here is on her running a lifetime best, getting in the mix and putting in a lifetime performance."
The High Performance director was at pains to point out that the Paralympic Games are about much more than medals and emphasised the hard work and effort that has been put in by all athletes.
"The Paralympic Games takes a long route, their training is no different from their Olympic counterparts. They’re spending six days a week, 40 odd weeks a year training.
"To qualify for the games is a tough process and for many of our athletes they’ve reached lifetime best targets to qualify for the games.
"Our measure of success is our athletes being able to come over here and perform to their very best and hit lifetime best performances."
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