We are delighted that the Great Britain wheelchair rugby team continued their excellent efforts and won against New Zealand 60 – 37 in their second game in the Tokyo Paralympics. Playing on 26th August at the Yoyogi National Stadium they were more than ready for the Kiwi team.
CEO David Pond said “By the end of the first quarter GB were leading 17-5 which allowed Head Coach Paul Shaw to give all his players a roll out including giving a first Paralympic Games experience to Jack Smith – big congratulations to him.”
Whatever happens now the Great British Team are through to the semi finals, but they will have a tough game to play on 27th August 2021 when they face the US.
CEO David Pond knows that the team need to stay focussed on this game and said “It’s great to have everyone supporting us in this way but for us it is very much one game at a time. The next focus for us is the USA. It is a game we want to win and we will think about what follows afterwards when that is over. “
We were really pleased to see Kylie Grimes interviewed at the end of the match which was broadcast live on More4. She is one of two women, along with Bieke Ketelbuters, who competed on wheelchair rugby teams at the 2012 Summer Paralympics. Wheelchair rugby is a mixed sport but only 4 players in the eight squads in this year’s games are female: Kae Kurahashi (Japan), Shae Graham (Australia), Sofie Skoubo (Denmark) and Kylie Grimes. It was great to see her back at the Tokyo Paralympics.
In a personal update David Pond thanked Get Kids Going! as a long term supporter of the team and said that without that support the team “just could not have made it to Tokyo”.
All of the wheelchair rugby games can be watched live on Channel 4/ More4 and you can also see daily updates from David Pond on the Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby website gbwr.org.uk. The team are next playing the US on 27th August 2021 at 9.30am.