Great Britain’s women’s wheelchair basketball team win gold

Tuesday 31 May 2011
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Great Britain’s women’s wheelchair basketball team beat Germany 63-52 to win gold at the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.

The team, who had also defeated the Germans in the round-robin stages, claimed their first international title. GB women’s Helen Freeman top-scored with 22 points, whilst teenager Amy Conroy hit 16.

Freeman said: “We hit our shots and believed we could win. We have a lot of young players in this squad and it is perfect timing as they are all coming through now. I’ve no doubt that Germany will be back, as they are always strong, but we now feel like we can beat anyone.”

Head coach Garry Peel, commented: “We started attacking the basket and seemed to be happy with that, but I told them to keep going. There is a lot more confidence and belief within the squad now. Our goal is top four in 2012 but that’s still so far away, for now we just have to take it one step at a time.”

The GB men’s team were also in the medals, securing bronze with a 63-43 victory over Brazil.

Terry Bywater, who scored 17 points in the game, said: “I’m happy with the result, it was a typical ‘English Bulldog’ performance. We knew we had to come out of this game with a medal and we didn’t want to let the fans down. We showed what the British team is all about.”

From BBC Sport

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