IPC President Andrew Parsons is confident Tokyo 2020 will go ahead ©IPC

International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Andrew Parsons has promised an "incredible" Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games this year, but admitted it will "require the best of us" to stage a successful event during a pandemic.

Writing in his New Year's message, Parsons said a "lot of hard work" will be needed to organise the Games, rescheduled because of the COVID-19 crisis.

The Brazilian attempted to deliver a message of hope to the Paralympic Movement, declaring: "We will pull this off."

Concerns have grown in recent weeks over the staging of the postponed Olympics and Paralympics after the discovery of a new variant of coronavirus.

Infection rates are also rising in host city Tokyo, which recorded more than 1,000 cases in a single day earlier this week, but officials from the IPC, Tokyo 2020 and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have insisted the rearranged Games will go ahead.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics are scheduled to run from July 23 to August 8, with the Paralympics due to follow between August 24 and September 5.

"My message to all is to focus on what you can really do and what you can achieve and on the feasible deliverables in what can be a very difficult but at the same time an incredible year, because we will pull this off," Parsons said.

"We will organise an incredible Paralympic Games in Tokyo 2020. 

"But this will require the best of us. 

"This will require a lot of hard work. 

"The Tokyo Games will be different than previous editions. 

"That doesn’t mean they will be worse. 

"It’s the other way around because of what it will mean at the end of the day. 

"So, I think it will be remembered forever in the history books - not only in the history books of sport - but in the history books of humanity. 

"Imagine people going through it and thinking if these guys did that in that year - I’m talking 20 years in the future - we can do anything we set our minds."

Parsons, a member of the IOC, also praised the Paralympic Movement for how it had responded to the challenging year of 2020.

"I’m proud of this Movement," he said.

"I’m proud of this organisation because in unprecedented times, we needed to deliver more and better than any other year and we managed to do that; so basically doing things differently than any previous experiences - we had to deliver more.

"And I think we rose to the challenge in a very challenging year, in a very difficult year."