The International Paralympic Committee have named eight athletes to watch out for at Rio. Two British athletes were on the list, BC3 World Number 1 Jacob Thomas and BC1 World Number 2 David Smith.

The IPC biographies are as follows:

Jacob Thomas

Thomas started 2016 as the world No. 1 in the BC3 class and will be hoping to perform better at Rio 2016 than he did on his Paralympic debut at London 2012, where he made the last 16.

The Welsh born athlete started playing boccia whilst as primary school and became the Welsh and British champion in 2010.

At his first individual competition at a major international event, the 2011 World Cup in Belfast, Great Britain, he finished fifth and also finished sixth in the Pairs competition.

In 2013, he won bronze in the pairs event at the European Championships and at the 2014 World Championships in Beijing, China, he won bronze in the individual event. He lost in the semi-finals to eventual champion Hansoo Kim of South Korea.

His best individual performance in 2015 was at the Boccia World Open in Poznan, Poland, where he won silver.

David Smith

London 2012 silver medallist Smith will be hoping to go one step further at Rio 2016 and, after winning multiple titles in the last four years, few would doubt him.

He lost out on gold at his home Paralympics in London to Thailand’s Pattaya Tadtong in the individual event. He also took bronze in the team BC1-BC2 event.

A year later, he won the European title by defeating Greece’s Panagiotis Soulanis in the gold medal match.

In 2014, he added the world title in Beijing, China. In the semi-final he edged past the Netherlands’ Daniel Perez 4-2 before defeating Thailand’s Witsanu Huadpradit 9-2 to land gold.