A CROWNHILL statistician has been given a "once in a lifetime opportunity" to support the Olympic and Paralympic basketball games.

Chris Chapman, aged 23, was nominated for the role by England Basketball last year. Since then he attended a number of assessments before receiving the good news.

"It's been a whole year of test clinics and games for Marjon working towards this so it's just brilliant news," Chris said.

"I'm 23 now so I'm never going to get the chance to do this again as we will probably not get the Olympics for maybe another 50 years and I wont be doing stats at that age – it's a once in a lifetime opportunity."

For the role Chris will travel up to London three days before the games start on 28 July. He will take part in some last minute training before receiving his accreditation and kit.

In each game he will act in a team of six – three for each team.

Chris said: "We will be doing some last minute training before we start at the Basketball Arena. For the Olympics they are putting is up in a hotel and arranging for our transport to the venue.

"There are 24 of us and we are doing all the statistics for the games including for the arena big screens and anyone watching the games on television around the world.

"Each person will probably do two or three games a day in the preliminary stages and there are six people per team and around six games a day. Towards the finals it will get to just two a day.

"I've got a 50 per cent chance to cover the finals but it is also based on our performance so if I do well I could hopefully get to either the men's or women's final.

The former All Saints Academy pupil has volunteered as a statistician for both the UCP Marjon Raiders and the Plymouth Marjon team.

He first started as a spotter for a friend in 2006 but as his experience grew he was compiling the statistics for National League games.

At the end of August Chris will return to London in time for the Paralympic Basketball games.

"We are travelling to London on 27 August, again three days before the start on 30 August. This time we will be staying in athletes village so that will be something to look forward to," Chris added.

During the preliminary stages the games will be held in the new Basketball Arena, a temporary venue for the games until the final stages are reached where the matches will move to the North Greenwich Arena (known as the O2).

Chris will also be joined for the Olympic matches by fellow statistician, Tom Riley from Saltash.

The first Olympic basketball match will take place on 28 July and 30 August for the Paralympics.