Nearly all the focus is on the athletes in the ongoing Paralympic Games in Paris, but some need a bit of extra support, such as blind competitors who run or cycle with a guide to help them along their way.

In many ways the guides are the 'invisible' men and women of the Paralympic Games, standing alongside the athlete and in peak fitness themselves, but knowing that all of the attention and glory is for the person next to them.

Luke Pollard is the guide who helped Britain's Dave Ellis to gold in the triathlon, and he has explained just what his job consists of.

A former triathlete who competed for 13 years, Pollard first met Ellis is 2018, when he saw an advertisement placed by British Triathlon looking for guides for visually impaired athletes, and the pair began working together the following year.

Pollard and Ellis are tied together by an elastic cord for the swim and run sections of the triathlon, while Pollard steers a tandem bike for the second stage of the race.

"Dave can't really see much so he just feels the tension on the tether, of where I'm going. My job is to make sure he performs to the best of his ability but also to make sure he gets round with no mishaps," said Pollard to the BBC.

The guide explained that it was more complicated than many could think, ensuring a visually impaired athlete can get round the course.

"There are things that you may not fully think of if you are fully sighted like gradients in the road if they are off camber, or an empty water bottle on the floor," he said, adding that he talked to Ellis all the time during the race.

"I'm giving him feedback, 'This is how we are going, this is what time we are on at the moment, this is where the other athletes are," and at the end. "I might give him some encouragement, a bit of screaming!"

And although Ellis took the glory, Pollard believes helping guide him to gold was "definitely the best thing I've ever done in the sport."

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