WAIS Athletes in World Cup Action

The Men’s and Women’s Australian Wheelchair Basketbal teams, the Rollers and Gliders both return home from the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester with Bronze medals. Both teams struggled in the early rounds, both dropping two of their three games in the pool stages to leave them both with a Bronze Medal playoff game to finish their respective tournaments.

The Gliders had Amber Merritt, Clare Burzynski (WAIS scholarship holder) and Cobi Crispin of Wheelchair Sports WA represented at the tournament as well as head coach John Triscari. The girls lost their opening fixture to the Netherlands by a single point that would come back to haunt them in the latter stages of the tournament.

Backing up the following day, the girls again went down to the Canadian before bouncing back on day three with an emphatic win over Great Britain. The Gliders went in to the Bronze medal game full of confidence and it showed as they won, easily accounting for Great Britain for the second day in a row, 59-24.

The Gliders will now play a five game series against Germany in Melbourne as a part of their preparation for World Championships in July.

It was almost an identical story on the Men’s side of the draw, with a single point loss to Italy on day two costing the Rollers their place in the Gold Medal game.

Australia defeated eventual winners Great Britain on Day three of Competition but with World Championships around the corner, Great Britain definitely look one of the teams to look out for.

With pride on the line, Australia easily accounted for Italy in their Bronze medal match-up. WAIS scholarship holders Justin Eveson, Shaun Norris, Michael Hartnett and Brad Ness were Wheelchair Sports WA’s representatives, with the boys back home now for a few weeks before flying out for World Championships in July.

– Wheelchair Sports