STUDENTS whizzed around in wheelchairs as they secured silver medals at the home of the Paralympics.

Pupils at Kingfisher School in Abingdon excelled in a regional sports contest in Buckinghamshire's Stoke Mandeville Stadium, largely known for its legacy as the birthplace of the Paralympic Games.

The team secured first-place victory at the Oxfordshire heat of the Panathlon Challenge last month, and went on to compete in the central and south regional finals last Tuesday where they placed second overall.

Kingfisher student Kyle Briers, 19, said: "We are pretty good as a team because we practise this every week. It is hard work but really worth it. We love the games. I like tennis too."

The competition is organised by charity the Panathlon Foundation, which was set up in 1999 to make competitive sports more accessible for disabled people.

The special needs school in Radley Road won gold medals in javelin, shot put, boccia – a sport similar to bowls that is adapted for players in wheelchairs – and a sport called polybat which is similar to table tennis.

Mr Briers said he liked all the adapted games, which also included table cricket and athletics, but said boccia was his favourite.

Students were up against three other regional finalists from schools representing Wiltshire and Northampton.

Each team was given a numerical score for each sport, with Kingfisher totalling 46 points just behind Wiltshire students who won with 56 points.

Kingfisher teacher Nikki Farmer said this was the third year the school had competed in a disabled games contest, and praised students for a 'really successful day'.

She said: "It [the contest] is so inclusive. It's a great environment with sport for all abilities. Panathlon is amazing for the students on so many levels, from physical to social and fosters a team spirit they rarely experience."

The charity provides 10,000 disabled young people every year with opportunities to take part in competitive sport that its says are 'so often denied elsewhere', and also offers equipment, funding and coaching for disabled sports across the country.

Panathlon's chief operating officer Tony Waymouth said: "It was great to be back in Stoke Mandeville with such large numbers of competitors.

"The regional multisport final offers an opportunity for counties to test themselves against other successful and achieving peers."

He said there are also spin-off games called Primary Panathlon that 'provide an opportunity for young ones to see what they can achieve in the future'.