The men suffered a shock 59-50 defeat to France while the women went down 53-37 despite a valiant performance against the United States, the Paralympic champions.

After a day off yesterday for all of the teams, Britain’s men,  widely tipped for medal success, went into the game against the French having impressively topped their pool without losing a match.

The BT Paralympic World Cup champions looked set to continue their unbeaten run in Birmingham as they took a narrow 23-19 lead a half-time.

But the French team remained strong despite being behind for the first half of the match and crucially scored a high percentage of their free throws with the relentless Sofyane Mehiaoui the main threat for the French.

The French started to pull ahead of the hosts in the final quarter and to make matters worse, Terry Bywater, Britain’s top scorer, received his fifth foul which forced him out of the game.



Bywater’s departure allowed the French to comfortable run down the clock to secure a nine point victory and shatter the medal hopes of the hosts.

Things were not much better in the women’s draw as the US beat Britain by a handsome margin, although the hosts did at least put in a strong showing against the reigning Paralympic gold medallists.

At half-time, Gary Peel’s side were very much in the game with the US leading 24-18.

They stayed in the match during the third quarter with Helen Freeman looking particularly impressive but the team fell away in the final quarter as the US claimed a 16 point win that rather flattered them.

There was another shock in the men’s draw as reigning world champions Canada were beaten 47-63 by European champions Italy, who Britain had beaten in the pool stage.

Canada’s women had no such trouble though and remain on course to defend the title they won four years ago with a convincing 62-39 win over Japan.

Australia’s men, the reigning Paralympic champions, crushed Poland 68-34 to secure a semi-final spot while the US also reached the last four with a 92-50 victory over Turkey.

Australia’s women thrashed China 77-38 to progress while the women’s Beijing 2008 Paralympic silver medallists Germany beat the Netherlands 63-40 in the day’s other game.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected] 
 
Pictures: SA Images


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