@$:BYLINE-FRANK:By KYLEHUNTERSports EditorBODY-FRANK:BERMUDA'S Sandy Mitchell will fly the flag next week at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics in Hong Kong. Mitchell, 64, has cerebral palsy and will be riding his mount Highland Fling (Willy) when the competition begins on Monday at the Hong Kong Jockey Club ¿ the same arena that the equestrian events were staged recently during the Olympics.BODY-FRANK-2:Chef de mission Jennifer Southern said this week: "The equestrian venue is second to none. Both Sandy and Willy have settled down and are getting over the flight and jet lag (from Toronto). Some of the (other) horses suffered from shipping fever ¿ one quite severely ¿ but they all seem to have recovered now."The Bermuda team is expected to attend the Opening Ceremony this weekend before Mitchell competes in the dressage on Monday.Riders create their own pattern of movements called a floor plan. The plan has to incorporate compulsory movements and the test is ridden to music that the rider chooses to match and enhance the paces of the horse. The test should clearly show the unity between rider and horse as well as rhythm and harmony in all the movements and transitions.While Mitchell will be Bermuda's sole competitor at these Games, three future Paralympians will also be going.Jessica Lewis, Paul Alves and Sia Castle have all been invited to travel with the team to Beijing to observe the Games.Deputy Chef de Mission Ann Lindroth who will be with the three, said before departing Bermuda yesterday: "We want to give them exposure and for them to see what they can aim for. Paul is a tennis player but they seed tennis players for the Games and only the top 35 in the world get in so that is out for him. But he would have more luck with track and field because they issue wild cards."Alves is 28 years old and is currently a wheelchair tennis player. He also coaches both able bodied and physically challenged athletes, including fellow future Paralympian Jessica Lewis. Alves has spina bifida and is paralysed from the waist down and travelling to Beijing to observe the Paralympics fulfills a lifelong dream of his.Lindroth, who is also one of Bermuda's best show jumpers, said of Jessica Lewis: "The world is her oyster.She is only 15 years old and she can choose what sport she wants to excell in."Lewis shows promise as an all-round athlete. She has diastematomyelia which is a congenital disorder in which a part of the spinal cord is split. She has participated in equestrian, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair tennis and track and is very keen to compete at the Paralympic level in wheelchair basketball and/or track."The third future Paralympian Sia Castle is the oldest at 37 years old and Lindroth said she wants to compete in boccia.Castle has arthrogryposis, a congenital disorder causing joint contractures. She is a keen team player and has participated in wheelchair tennis, basketball and is intrigued by the strategic skills that boccia requires. Mitchell is believed to be the oldest rider in the equestrian events at the Beijing Paralympics and first went to the Paralympics in 2000 in Sydney.Three years later he scored a personal best and finished sixth overall in his grade at the World Para-Equestrian Dressage Championships in Belgium. A year later he went to the Athens Paralympics. He said this week: "If I am lucky I may get a medal ¿ any colour will do." He is also looking ahead to the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, the United States, at which para-equestrian events will for the first time also be on the programme. "I will stay in the sport as long as I can, even at 80. I feel good, so I will keep it up," he said. The Bermuda Paralympic Association (BPARAS) has been raising funds for some time to send Mitchell and the three future Paralympians to Beijing.Kirsty Anderson, a former Paralympian, said: "The Paralympic Games will present an elite competition of the highest standards for athletes with physical disabilities, focusing on the athlete and not on their disability. The Paralympic athletes' strength and skill to compete at the highest level will inspire the world to celebrate this great sports competition and determine the measure of human greatness."Mitchell will be joined in Beijing and China by 4,000 fellow athletes from 145 countries who will be competing in 20 sports over the next two weeks.Anderson along with Phyllis Harshaw were the first athletes to represent Bermuda at the Paralympics when they attended the 10th Paralympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 to compete in dressage.In 2000 Anderson and Mitchell represented Bermuda at the 11th Paralympic Games in Sydney in 2000 and again the same duo competed in the 12th Paralympic Games in Athens in 2004.Mitchell has also participated in skiing and sailing but it is dressage that is his true love.He achieved a successful score of 60.8% at the World Dressage Championships for Disabled Riders in Hartpury, United Kingdom last summer and another qualifying score of 63.6% at the Pacific Rim Paralympic Qualifier, which secured him a place at the 13th Paralympic Games in Beijing. Since qualifying, Mitchell has been intensively training towards the Paralympics at the Stables at WindReach Farm in Canada where his horse, Highland Fling, is stabled, riding with his instructor Kendra Flynn-Stronach.BPARAS and WindReach Recreational Village have hosted two adaptive sports camps this year to promote adaptive sporting opportunities for disabled persons *L*p(0,0,0,10.5,0,0,g)in the community. The camps have offered opportunities for physically challenged athletes to participate in archery, sailing, power lifting, tennis, boccia, track and field, basketball and equestrian. It was from these camps that BPARAS identified the three potential future Paralympians ¿ Lewis, Alves and Castle, and invited them to travel with the team to Beijing to observe the Paralympic Games. *p(0,10,0,10.5,0,0,g)Bermuda's team in China and Hong kong consists Jeni Southern as Chef De Mission (Hong Kong), Ann Lindroth as Assistant Chef De Mission (Beijing), Paul Sullivan as Chef D'Equipe, Kendra Flynn-Stronach as coach and Sue McTavish as horse groom. Lori Lewis will be credentialed as a caregiver for Jessica Lewis, Alves and Castle.