After a year of waiting, the world’s best athletes are finally preparing to take to the international sporting stage at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Ayrshire is represented by competitors in athletics, rugby sevens, boccia and wheelchair basketball events at the Tokyo championships.

The Olympics will run from July 23-August 8, with full coverage available on the BBC.

Channel 4 will be broadcasting the Paralympics, which gets underway on August 23, running until September 5.

Here’s all the dates and times (BST) you need to catch Ayrshire’s best in their quests for the podium:

Jemma Reekie, Beith

Irvine Times:

Track star Jemma Reekie, 23, has been selected to represent Team GB in the Women’s 800m – a distance in which she holds the Scottish record with a time of 1:57:91.

The Kilbarchan AAC athlete is attending her first Olympics after carrying the torch at London 2012 as a 14-year-old.

She will race in the 800m heats which get underway on Friday, July 30 from 1:55am.

Should she progress from the heats, Reekie will race in the semi-final on Saturday, 31 July from 12:50pm.

The Women’s 800m final will be run on Tuesday, August 3 at 1:25pm.

Robbie Fergusson, Ayr

Irvine Times: Robbie FergussonRobbie Fergusson

Former Glasgow Warriors and London Scottish player Robbie Fergusson has travelled to Tokyo as part of the Great Britain rugby sevens squad.

The 27-year-old started his career at Ayr RFC, joining the mini-rugby section as a child and progressing to the first-team at the age of 17.

Great Britain faced Canada and Japan at 1:30am and 10:30am, respectively, in Pool A on Monday, July 26.

The country’s final Pool A match was against Fiji at 1:30am on Tuesday, July 27.

The team was successful and so they have now progressed to the quarter-finals which are played during the evening session on July 27.

The semi-finals will be held on the morning of Wednesday, July 28, ahead of the gold and bronze medal matches that evening.

Jamie and Scott McCowan, Dundonald

Brothers Jamie and Scott McCowan will represent Great Britain in the BC3 Boccia.

Scott, 29, is attending his third Paralympics, with Jamie, 26, being selected for his second.

The pair will be joined by fellow Scot Stephen McGuire, as well as their parents, Gary and Linda McCowan, who have travelled as ramp assistants.

Great Britain’s six BC3 preliminaries will be played between Saturday, August 28-Monday, 30 August.

If the team progress, their quarter-final match will be played on Tuesday, 31 August from 1:30am, ahead of the semi-finals from 8:00am.

The bronze medal match is scheduled for 1:30am on Wednesday, September 1, followed by the final at 7:05am.

Robyn Love, Ayr

Irvine Times:

Wheelchair basketball player Robyn Love is attending her second games, after missing out on bronze with Team GB in Rio.

The squad lost out on a spot in the final to the United States, before losing the bronze medal match to the Netherlands.

Love, 30, played tennis and football before taking up basketball in 2013.

Great Britain’s Group A campaign gets underway at the against Canada on Wednesday, August 25 at 6:45am.

The team will also play Japan between 1:00am-5:00am on Thursday, August 26.

Their final group matches will be against Germany on Friday, August 27 and Australia on Saturday, August 28, with tip-off at 12:30pm.

The quarter-finals will be held from 4:30am on Tuesday, August 31, with the semi-finals scheduled for 10:15am on Thursday, September 2.

The gold and bronze medal matches will be held on Saturday, September 4.