大象传媒

MANCHESTER: There is little doubt that the at this year's Beijing Paralympics.

That's why there was plenty of attention on their women's basketball team when they took to the court to take on the Netherlands in their opening game at the up in sunny Manchester.

Individuals will make up the bulk of the Chinese medal total in Beijing and are expected to fare better than the team sports, which require a lot more training time together for the players to gel as an effective unit.

Although they lost 51-42 to the Netherlands, there were plenty of promising signs from the Chinese women.

GB women's player Helen Turner talked to me about all the money being invested in China's preparations and how the team were playing in lots of tournaments to get game practice ahead of Beijing. "What will be interesting to see is whether they are a team which is just put together for this year's Games or whether they will carry on until 2012 and beyond," she said.

The basketball is being staged in the indoor warm-up arena of the Manchester Regional Arena, having previously been staged at the Amaechi Centre in Whalley Range and the middle of the Manchester Velodrome, without the bikes.

Unbelievably, the sun is out in full force in Manchester - my taxi driver to the venue even threatened to charge me extra for the privilege - and it made for a hot and sticky atmosphere in the venue for the basketball.

Despite the heat and loud music blasting over the PA system, the crowd were strangely subdued at times, but each of the Chinese team loudly applauded and cheered when any of their team-mates scored a basket.

Like many other women's sports, the slower tempo of women's basketball can sometimes fail to impress a crowd who come expecting high-speed clashes of wheelchairs coming together and players and their chairs falling to the ground.

But the basic skills are still the same and there were some flashes of inspiration from the Chinese girls with skilful passes and scores as they bid to make an impact on home soil in September.

In their second game, the Chinese came up against the . They fell 22-0 behind early on, but they battled their way back .

But don't be surprised if they cause a surprise in one of their games on home soil in the Paralympics.

And just as a wrap-up for the opening day, got off to a great start to the tournament with a . It promises to be an explosive World Cup.