PARALYMPIC gold-medallist Josie Pearson will be gearing up for the IPC Athletics World Championships in France later this year.

Josie, from Cusop, has returned to full-time training and says she was buoyed by the announcement that six IPC grand prix events will take place in 2013.

“It was great after London and making a lot of public appearances and, hopefully, inspiring other people to take up sport,” said Josie, who clinched a gold medal in the discus at last autumn’s London Paralympics.

“But I have now gone back to full-time training and, hopefully, I can be even more successful this year. And everything will be geared towards the World Championships.”

The World Championships are being held in Lyon in July.

The first IPC grand prix event will take place in Dubai in March before competitions in Beijing, Sao Paulo, Grosseto, Arizona and Berlin.

“I won’t be doing all six events and I am sure that and my coach and I will be sitting down to work out my competition’s schedule,” said Josie, who also competes in the club throw.

“The news of the six grand prix events is fantastic for the sport.

“It’s great for Paralympic sport to have great exposure like this. We don’t yet know what events will be at them.”

Josie confirmed she will be at Herefordshire Sport’s annual awards at the Royal National College for the Blind later this month.

“I have been asked to attend a lot of events since London and it’s always lovely to be asked.

“I can’t do them all but I will definitely be at the Herefordshire Sports Awards – it’s a nice local event and I always enjoy going to it.”

She added: “I will be selecting the events that I will be going to if it’s local and it doesn’t affect my training then I will try to be there.”

Josie, who trains in Hereford and Cardiff, added: “I am a full-time athlete and that’s my job. I am going to focus on my training so I can achieve even more success in 2013.”