The Ministry of  Defense (MoD) on Sunday expressed hope that the seven-member Afghan team will perform well at the Invictus Games which kicked off in the Canadian city of Toronto on Saturday.

“They have taken all necessary preparations to compete in the games and we hope that they return with gold medals,” said MoD spokesman Dawlat Waziri.

The Invictus Games is an international paralympic-style multi-sport event for armed services personnel.

The Afghan team trained hard to make it to the games and the seven athletes were selected from a total of 70. This is the biggest team Afghanistan has sent to date.

NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was among a number of high-ranking officials who praised the Afghan team for their courage and determination.

“Men and women of the armed forces, competitors, you have served under the NATO flag, many of you in Afghanistan, in Kosovo and in other NATO missions and operations, I would like to thank you, to commend you for your commitment, for your dedication and for your service, but I will also like to thank you for being role models for taking part in Invictus games and by doing so, you are inspiring so many others around the whole world,” said Stoltenberg.

This is the third Invictus Games, an initiative started in 2014 by Britain’s Prince Harry.

This year’s games are being hosted by Toronto and 550 athletes from 17 countries will take part in the eight day event.

The athletes will compete in 12 adaptive sports including archery, athletics, indoor rowing, powerlifting, road cycling, sitting volleyball, swimming, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair tennis and wheelchair rugby. Also, new to the sports line up will be golf.

There will also be a demonstration match of sledge hockey. All competitions will take place in state-of-the-art sport venues throughout Toronto.

The 2017 Games will introduce the first-ever Invictus Games relay, igniting the Invictus Games spirit across all 32 Canadian military bases and neighbouring communities.