As the 2010 edition of the BT Paralympic World Cup drew to a close last week with a phenomenal day of swimming that saw four world records tumble in Manchester, I was left feeling slightly disappointed.

Not disappointed by the athletes, the competition or the venues but simply disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to return to the fantastic event for another year.

I turned up in Manchester ahead of the competition with very high hopes indeed but the BT Paralympic World Cup somehow managed to more than exceed my lofty expectations.

While Oscar Pistorius was perhaps the man grabbing most of the headlines, there was so much more to the event than simply the fastest man with no legs.

The seven-a-side football tournament was a clear illustration to everyone in attendance that there is a minuscule difference between able-bodied and disabled footballers while the atmosphere during the wheelchair basketball tournament was so deafening that my eardrums are yet to fully recover from the barrage.

In fact, during the men’s wheelchair basketball final which saw the Beijing 2008 Paralympic bronze medallists Britain take on silver medallists Canada, I became so engrossed by the atmosphere that I completely forgot about my occupation as a journalist and begin cheering along with the partisan crowd for Britain to go on and win the gold - which they managed to do with a 53-42 victory. 

The swimming event - which was rather unfortunately the only event from the competition shown live on BBC television - was outstanding and Ellie Simmonds leading a world record blitz from the Brits really says it all.

But the sporting highlight must be the first day of the competition when 5,500 spectators, a record crowd for a disability sports event in the UK, turned up to watch athletes compete at the magnificent Manchester Regional Arena.

The sun was out, fans were screaming and the athletes on display really did show through their blistering speed and remarkable power that you are abled by your abilities rather than disabled by your disabilities.

The whole event simply oozed world-class and the on-site events were also great fun such as the "come and try zone" run by ParalympicsGB and Deloitte where spectators were given the chance - in between matches - to have a go at Paralympic sports such as wheelchair fencing, wheelchair racing and wheelchair basketball.

In order to see how difficult wheelchair racing actually was, I jumped in a chair myself to see how fast I could go round the track.

Needless to say, I was sweating within seconds and after an exhausting yet extremely slow first 100 metres, I could barely move the wheels around. It was a further blow to my pride when I was told that I was racing on the easiest setting and when I was rather unkindly moved up to the hardest setting by one of the instructors with a strange sense of humour, I could just about manage one turn of the wheel before I just gave up trying to complete the lap.

Despite my rather embarrassing attempt at a the 400m, I was glad to experience the sensation of wheelchair racing in order to fully appreciate how immensely strong athletes such as Dave Weir and Shelly Woods must be to compete not only in sprint events, but gruelling 26 mile road races, such as the wheelchair London Marathon.



For me though, my personal highlight was finally meeting one of my sporting heroes; Oscar Pistorius (pictured).

I was told once that you should never meet your heroes as you will only be disappointed when they inevitably don’t live up to your unrealistic expectations.

I was therefore slightly nervous when I set off to meet Oscar the day before the BT Paralympic World as I was worried that I might not actually like him in person or worse still, find him to be an arrogant moron because of his immense fame and success.

I remember very vividly walking up to him, introducing myself and saying: "It’s a real honour to meet you as your one of my heroes."

Looking both slightly taken a back and embarrassed, Oscar thanked me and we began to talk as if were old friends.

I was both delighted and relieved that he turned out to be one of the nicest people I have ever met and equally pleased that he felt that he knew me well enough to ask if he could lean on my shoulder following his exertions in 400m the next day because he said he was tired from standing up following all the post-event interviews.

Another idol of mine I was fortunate enough to meet was International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Sir Philip Craven.

Although we had spoken on the phone on a number of occasions - which I am almost certain Sir Philip does not remember at all despite him politely saying that he did recall them - it was a genuine privilege to meet him in person and I was very honoured when he said that he had enjoyed reading one of my more recent articles.

Like Oscar, Sir Philip is a truly inspirational man to talk to and an individual that will be instrumental in moving the Paralympic Movement forward. He is one of the very few people I have met that gives me goosebumps just because of how passionately he speaks and although we ended up discussing some rather unusual subjects such as Wayne Rooney and the England cricket team’s chances against Bangladesh in the recent Test series, I will not soon forget Sir Philip’s ageless enthusiasm for wanting to introduce as many people as possible to Paralympic sport.

However, perhaps the biggest star I managed to meet during the 2010 BT Paralympic World Cup was none other than London 2012 Paralympic mascot Mandeville!

Mandeville turned up on the Friday of the competition to meet and greet the children attending the event and despite the commotion surrounding the high-profile character; I managed to fight through the crowds to get not only a handshake but a picture with the icon! 
 
All joking aside, I was extremely pleased to see Mandeville turn up as it shows how much attention London 2012 is devoting to getting people into the Paralympics as well as the Olympics.

Sir Philip told me that he thinks that London 2012 will be that first ever Games that will achieve the distinction of hosting an Olympics and Paralympics of equal stature and I think he is probably right.

The BT Paralympic World Cup is no doubt a vital stepping stone on the path to London 2012 and without wishing to sound too much like Roger Federer after he has just won a Grand Slam, I think we should thank BT and the rest of the sponsors for putting on such a tremendous event.

The BBC should also be praised for providing coverage of the competition and despite accusations that their interest in Paralympic sport has waned following Channel 4’s acquisition of the London 2012 Paralympics, they were undoubtedly instrumental in the formation of the BT Paralympic World Cup and must be praised for that.

Tom Degun is the Paralympics reporter for insideworldparasport