One of the competition posters on the road in Assen

Over 1,100 competitors from 82 countries will be competing in one of the biggest events as the Beijing Paralympics approaches.

Ahead of the event, BBC Sport's Tony Garrett made the trip to the Netherlands to see how plans are progressing.

There will be coverage of the event on BBC Grandstand on Saturday 9 September at 1600 BST and Sunday 10 September (time TBC).

Mention Assen to sports fans and the chances are they will recognise it as a motorcycling hotspot.

The Circuit van Drenthe, opened in 1955, hosts rounds of the World Superbikes and MotoGP Championships annually with thousands of fans flocking to the track from all over the world.

But for nine days at the start of September, Assen is going to be the most important place for disability sport as it hosts the biggest Paralympic event before the Beijing Games.

After taking a flight from Gatwick to Amsterdam's Schipol Airport, it was onto an Inter City train as I made my way to sunny Assen.

First stop was a whirlwind tour through the town and I spotted a number of posters promoting the event dotted around.

The Dutch poster boy for the championship is wheelchair racer Kenny van Weeghel, who is one of the stars in the T54 category, where he is the Paralympic and World champion over 400m and is a rival of British star David Weir.

DID YOU KNOW Assen has a population of just over 62,000 It received city rights in 1809 It is twinned with Bad Bentheim in Germany Former Stoke midfielder Peter Hoekstra was born there in 1973

From there it was on to see how progress was developing at the Sports Park Stadsbroek where the eight days of competition will take place.

The venue was the setting for the 2003 European Paralympic Championships so a lot of the required infrastructure was already in place.

But since then a new training track has been built and construction work to build some stands is almost complete to give the track a proper athletics feel.

Saturday's opening ceremony which will be held at the De Smelt skating track and swimming pool next to the athletics track, promises to be very spectacular.

One of the comperes will be the BBC's Paul Dickenson and as well as the competitors being introduced to the crowd, there will be an entertaining show.

Wheelchair-accessible buses will operate from Assen's train station to the venue which organisers hope will encourage as many people as possible to make the journey to see the action.

From there, my next stop was the athletes village just outside the city.

The 1100 competitors from 82 countries will be staying at the Hof van Saksen bungalow park with most of the park reserved for the championships.

Our man checks out the athletes village in Assen

Here it was a hive of activity with new bungalows being completed and marquees and food halls being prepared for the arrival of the athletes.

To support the event, organisers have invited a number of schools, including those with a disability, to attend the championships.

They hope that it will help disabled children understand what possibilites are open to them in the world of sport, but will also give all of the children a fantastic experience.

As an added bonus, because it would be very difficult for some children to travel there and back, all of the pupils and coaches will stay at the same accommodation park as the athletes.

It was a whistle-stop tour for me before travelling back to Amsterdam by train and catching the last flight of the day back to the UK.

With construction still continuing so close to the competition, there will be some last-minute worries for both organisers and athletes.