Danielle Brown feels no pressure about becoming the first disabled athlete to represent England in an able-bodied event at the Commonwealth Games.

Speaking at the Athlete’s Village in Delhi today, she said: “Everyone seems to think there’ll be a lot of pressure on me but I’ve got no expectations. I’ve got no pressure on me.”

Competing in her first Commonwealth Games, the paralympic gold medallist said she was looking forward to making the most of what “could well be a once in a lifetime opportunity”.

Brown revealed that she almost didn’t enter qualification for Delhi, as she was returning from a paralympic training event in Arizona, USA, but a teammate and her boyfriend persuaded her to try for a place. A law student at the University of Leicester at the time, she said she was anxious to turn her attention to exam revision.

She said: “I qualified three days before the closing date. I thought ‘I’ve got to concentrate on my exams’. I was jet-lagged, I got to bed at three in the morning and I had to get up at six. I think because there was no pressure on me I did really well.”

Brown, who has now graduated with a first class degree, said her experience in Delhi so far had been “brilliant” and she was pleased with the provision the organisers had made for athletes who used wheelchairs.

And, whatever the result in Delhi, she is looking to gain valuable experience. “Every time I go away I try to learn something from the event,” she said.