Gareth Davies

The BT Paralympic World Cup is underway here in Manchester, and already, new potential British stars are emerging - in all sports. Simon Jackson, the former multiple Paralympic gold medallist as a judo player has converted to cycling. No doubt the lad from Rochdale will make a major success of his transition, as former swimmers Sarah Storey and Jody Cundy have both done.

Equally the GB women's wheelchair basketball team revealed a new line-up on the opening day of their competition, with four players under 18 years of age. Of those, Madeleine Thompson, just 14 last month, and from Derbyshire, looks to be extremely promising.

Unbelievably, she is already enjoying rough and tumble on court against senior men in club matches. Certainly one to watch as London 2012 approaches.

Behind the scenes at sports city, tireless work goes on by the Parasport team, with schoolchildren trying out at wheelchair basketball - in a pop-up small-sided court, and on ergometers. Nowhere better to recruit and inform the younger generation.

Oscar Pistorius has also revealed to me that he feared "it was all over" after his horrific boat crash on the river Vaal in South Africa in February this year, which left him in a coma for two days and requiring facial reconstruction.

Pistorius, the 22-year-old platinum poster boy of the Paralympic Games, races in Manchester in the 100m and 400m at the BT Paralympic World Cup, having made a rapid recovery. Yet he has also admitted that he was close to losing his life.

Pistorius's speedboat hit a submerged pier on the Vaal river as he returned home in the gloaming one evening three months ago. Ironically, he had gone down river for some R & R, having locked the keys to his Superbike away, aware that the next three years are crucial if he is to reach his aim of qualifying for both Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012. In a horrific incident, Pistorius was thrown head-first into the speedboat's steering wheel at speed as the boat collided with the pier, submerged under three inches of water. Medical experts told him he had been extremely lucky to escape brain damage. "I prayed the whole way to the hospital in the ambulance, while the medic was trying to prevent a blood clot. I was conscious then but I don't remember much after that."

Pistorius was in a coma for the next three days. He had lost almost three litres of blood, required 180 stitches in his face, his jaw was broken, several ribs were broken, and his eye socket was smashed.

"I thought it was all over," he said. "I had massive fears at the time, especially the first two days. I was in a coma, and then I came out and there was a lot of swelling in my face, I spoke to the doctors and they put it into perspective for me. They told me how many bones were broken and how serious the injuries had been. By all accounts, I was very lucky."

Pistorius explained: "I remember hitting the pier, but don't remember a lot more. The boat sank in three minutes, I was losing a lot of blood in the water. A friend who was with me dragged the boat and me to the shore. The idea of going down the River Vaal was for a peaceful weekend before the season started."

Pistorius, the triple gold Paralympic sprinter born without fibulae in both legs, who runs on prosthetic limbs and has no less ambition than to be the fastest man at both the Paralympic and Olympic Games, knows the BT Paralympic World Cup is his first opportunity to put a marker down after winning gold in the T44 100m, 200m, and 400m at the Beijing Games.

He added yesterday: "In general my head is strong again, and as soon as I could, I was back on the track. I still had breathing difficulties when I started training. I had my jaw wired until four weeks ago, chewing was a problem on my high protein diet which was painful, but when I look at it now, it was a big impact and being able to come back as quickly as I have has been like a miracle." The greatest name in the Paralympics survived to run another day, and with God on his side, may yet fulfil his dreams.