Two Keighley athletes will be looking to bring back gold from Ireland's biggest sporting event next month.

The pair will be among a staggering 7,000 athletes from 166 nations heading for the £30m Special Olympics World Games in Dublin from June 21-29.

Graeme Cunningham, of Haworth, and Simon Waggett, of Silsden, will be helping to fly the flag for Great Britain's 257-strong team with nine other athletes from Yorkshire and Humberside.

Graeme, who has previously struck glory in national and regional Special Olympics events, will be looking to go one step further in the ten pin bowling event.

The 34-year-old, who attends Airedale and Wharfedale College, has been bowling for nine years. He won two golds in the national Special Olympics at Cardiff two years ago.

Graeme has won sponsorship from many sources, including the Eastwood Tavern, Bradford Road, which held a 24-hour pool competition last summer and raised £270, and Systemnet, of Bradford, who donated a pair of bowling shoes at a bowling event this year.

Simon, 20, will be looking to clean up the medals in the powerlifting with two other team members from Bradford.

He has been competing in the event for nearly four years and like Graeme is a member of Bradford Sports & Recreation Association for People with Disabilities.

As well as swimming, ten pin bowling and football, Simon is a keen actor with the Mind the Gap drama group and attends Craven College in Skipton.

Rob Wilkinson, press officer for Yorkshire & Humberside Special Olympics region said: "It is massive in the sense that out of 11 athletes that have qualified from the region, five are from Bradford and two from Keighley.

"The district has supplied the biggest contingent from Yorkshire and Humberside.

"Simon and Graeme both have very good medal chances.

"With these sort of events it depends on how you perform on the day, but they both have won plenty of medals in the past."