The 31-year-old (pictured above, front row, second right), who competes in the highly competitive T54 class, will be taking part in his fourth Paralympic Games in London.

His best showing at a Paralympics came at Athens 2004 where he won gold in the 400 metres, silver in the 200m and bronze in the 100m.

He is also a double world champion and quadruple European champion and will be looking to add to his glittering medal collection at the Olympic Stadium in Stratford.

Another major Dutch medal hope for London 2012 will be the talented double leg amputee sprinter Marlou van Rhijn (pictured above, back row, second right).

The 21-year-old will be making her Paralympic Games debut at London 2012 but there are high hopes after she set world records in the 100m and 200m T43 events earlier this year.

She also won gold in both events at 2011 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) European Athletics Championships in Stadskanaal last month in front of a home crowd to underline her status as a gold medal favourite for the Paralympics.


She is joined by five other women in the team with Iris Pruijsen (pictured top, back row, third right) and Suzan Verduijn (pictured above) to compete in the long jump F44, Amy Siemon (pictured top, front row, first right) and Desiree Vranken (pictured top, front row, first left) in the 100m and 200m T34 and Marije Smits (pictured top, back row, second left) in the 100m T42.

On the men's side, Van Weeghel is joined by fellow wheelchair racers Stefan Rusch (pictured top, front row, second left) and Henk Schuiling (pictured top, back row, third left) – both of whom will compete in the 100m and 200m T34 events.

Jelmar Bos (pictured top, back row, first right) will take part in the 100m T37 sprint, while Ronald Hertog (pictured top, back row, centre) completes the team as he competes in the long jump and javelin F44 events.

The Netherlands won three athletics medals at Beijing 2008, but after racking up 20 medals at the IPC Athletics European Championships, they will be confident of topping that number at London 2012.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]