ADULTS with learning difficulties enjoyed a day's sailing on Weymouth's Olympic-class waters to celebrate the handover of the Paralympic games from China to London.

Portland sailor Megan Pascoe, 21, who narrowly missed out on selection for this year's Paralympic British team and is campaigning for 2012, attended the event at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy.

South Dorset MP Jim Knight and Portland mayor Sandy West also joined the celebration.

Mr Knight said: "We had a group of adults with learning difficulties from local day centres learning to sail with SailLaser. They were joined by youngsters who had never sailed before from Gloucester and Devizes.

"It was part of a whole series of events up and down the country involving 5,000 schools nationally and 273 in the South West region. In Dorset there were also celebrations in Bournemouth and Poole." Mr Knight said the handover event was due to be followed with the launch of a new London 2012 website for school children.

The Get Set site is designed to enable young people to access resources and register the events they want to do to celebrate Olympic values such as trust, determination, courage and friendship.

Mr Knight said: "The British team came second in the Paralympics which is a fantastic achievement to follow on from the Olympic team. That in turn is something we've got to seek to succeed when we create our own distinctive games as the host nation. This is a brilliant opportunity to forge a legacy for the Olympic generation."

He added: "Everyone who's at school now and the next four years will be part of creating the biggest event the world has ever seen in four years' time.

"There's the motivation to be more active and healthy and to extend British values internationally through the Cultural Olympiad - opportunities we're only just beginning to grasp."

The new website can be found at www.london2012.com/getset