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By Elizabeth Hudson
BBC Sport in Athens
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Kenny has taken inspiration from Hoy
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The sun is out in Athens and the weekend is here so where better to spend
some free time than on the beach.
And the good news for Athens wheelchair-users is that the first beach in the
city to be fully accessible to people with disabilities has just opened.
A grid of wooden planks and ramps enables wheelchair users reach the
shoreline on a sandy beach in the Athens seaside suburb of Voula.
An automatic chair system descends them slowly from a quay down to the
water.
"Sand is no longer an insurmountable obstacle," said Greek tourism minister
Dimitris Avramopoulos during the opening ceremony for the beach.
Although Greece has thousands of kilometres of shoreline, only an handful of
beaches across the country are accessible for people with disabilities.
Briton Ellen Hunter has shown tremendous fighting spirit to get to the
Paralympics and she hopes it will culminate in a medal.
Hunter, who is the pilot rider for visually-impaired cyclist Aileen McGlynn,
broke her back in a cycling accident 15 months ago just before the European
Championships and was told that she would never cycle again.
But after spending six weeks in hospital recovering, Hunter got back on a
bike again in December and is now ready for the Paralympics - her first
major competition.
Hunter and McGlynn, who hail from Glasgow, have been training for two days
every fortnight coming up to the Games where they will compete in the 1km
time trial on Saturday.
Hunter and McGlynn's teammate Darren Kenny is hoping to emulate Great
Britain's Olympic cycling success when he takes part in the men's 1km time
trial.
"When I saw Chris Hoy on the podium during the Olympics I thought 'that's
where I want to be in four weeks time'," said the 34-year-old from
Bournemouth.
Kenny is also full of praise for the Athens Velodrome, where the events will
be staged.
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