The 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games are set to begin in Abu Dhabi tomorrow ©Abu Dhabi 2019

The 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games are set to begin in Abu Dhabi tomorrow with 7,500 athletes from a record 200 countries ready to compete at the latest edition of the largest sports and humanitarian event.

It is the first time that the Special Olympics is being held in the Middle East region.

A total of 24 individual and team sports feature on the programme, which is due to run from March 15 to 20 before the Closing Ceremony on March 21.

Events will be played out across nine venues.

Among those venues is the Zayed Sports City stadium, which will provide the setting for tomorrow's Opening Ceremony.

Several international stars will be in attendance at the traditional curtain raiser, including Canadian singer Avril Lavigne.

She will be performing her song "Fly".

Veteran DJ Paul Oakenfold is also set to be on hand to entertain the crowd along with Emirati singer Hussain Al Jassmi.

The Opening Ceremony will see the lighting of the cauldron that will officially mark the start of the event.

This will be done when the "Flame of Hope" completes its final journey into the iconic stadium.

Abu Dhabi was officially unveiled as host of the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games during a meeting with Emirati Government officials in January 2017.

It followed the announcement of the United Arab Emirates capital as host of the event in November 2016.

The Special Olympics World Summer Games were first held in 1968 in Chicago.

The most recent and 14th edition took place in Los Angeles in 2015.