The activity is set to provide athletes the opportunity to familiarise with the environment, as well as test travel strategies and experience the facilities that they will use in the immediate run up to next year’s Games, which are scheduled to take place from September 7 to 18.

The BPA’s preparation camps are supported by UK Sport with National Lottery funding and constitute a vital part of the BPA’s strategy to ensure that British athletes are supported to deliver personal-best performances on the field of play at Rio 2016.

The Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, the state’s top university, is one of three main pre-Games training centres for ParalympicsGB athletes, along with Minas Tênis Clube, a state-of-the-art multi sports club, and Cruzeiro football club.

A total of 20 athletes from across the sports of powerlifting, judo, shooting, archery and football seven-a-side are trialing the facilities in an effort to ensure that when the camps open in August 2016, they have experienced the environment.

"The camps are a crucial part of our preparation strategy and I would like to thank UK Sport and the National Lottery for helping us to ensure that our athletes truly have world class preparations," said Penny Briscoe, ParalympicsGB’s Chef de Mission for Rio 2016.

"The Paralympic Games are the pinnacle of an athlete’s career and it’s vital that our athletes can undertake their final training and preparations in the best possible environment.

"Our athletes have been working incredibly hard throughout this cycle and we have to get everything right in the last few days.

"The preparation camp will provide them with a springboard into the Games."

Belo Horizonte, which is only a one-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Brasilia, is said to be one of the best-connected cities in Brazil with the optimal year-round temperatures and first-class facilities making it an ideal location for sports training and preparation.

The city hosted a number of national teams during the 2014 FIFA World Cup and will also welcome Team GB in the run-up to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

"In an increasingly competitive Paralympic environment, it is key that our athletes have the very best preparation for the Games in Rio next year," said UK Sport director of performance, Simon Timson.

"This National Lottery funded opportunity for sports and athletes to rehearse their acclimatisation and pre-Games preparation strategies in Belo Horizonte will provide a crucial competitive advantage for ParalympicsGB to help them deliver inspirational performances again, as they did in London [at the 2012 Paralympic Games]."



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