An Exmouth athlete will be returning to the biggest stage in sport when he competes at the Paralympic Games in Rio.

David Hill, 27, will be competing in the paratriathlon - swimming, cycling and running.

David, who was born without a left hand and forearm, will be attending his second Paralympics, having previously competed in Athens, aged just 15.

He went to Athens as a swimmer, but after missing out on London 2012, he decided to change sport.

David said: “I was frustrated at my results and didn’t want to come to hate swimming.

“Triathlon has the element of swimming, but it’s got a variety of training to really enjoy.”

Having competed in his first triathlon in May 2013, David received support from British Triathlon – but it was still a hard slog to qualify for the Paralympic team.

When asked for his reaction to qualifying, David said: “I’m a bit relieved, quite frankly, because the standard is extremely high, not just in Britain, but around the world. I had really tough competition.”

With retirement a strong possibility after the games, David, who grew up in Exmouth and trains in Loughborough, says his goal is to enjoy himself, and put in a performance that reflects the work it’s taken to get there. “Retirement is probably on the cards, so the aim is to do a performance which reflects the training I have done, and to really, really enjoy it. A happy athlete is a fast athlete. I just want to do a performance where I can say ‘I really enjoyed that’.”