In front of a packed crowd at the Manchester Velodrome, Team Canada took an early lead in the first half with Patrick Anderson (Fergus, ON) leading the way. The 6’4” star showed once again his domination of the sport with impressive moves and impeccable precision. However, the Aussies stayed close to reduce the gap to three points by halftime, trailing 24-21.
The second half highlighted great team efforts from both sides. But it was Canada who came out on top, increasing their lead steadily throughout the second half. The red team’s defensive strategies worked to perfection, limiting Australia‘s scoring opportunities in the third and fourth quarters. Offensively, the Anderson-Peter duo stepped up to take control in an imposing victory.
“We knew Australia would come out strong and focused. We really stepped our defense and it was a good team effort.” said Vancouver’s Richard Peter, exhilarated after capturing gold. “Each of us goes out everyday to win, whether it is a gold medal or an exhibition game. This is a great step toward the World Championships in July.”
Unlike earlier games, Head Coach Paul Bowes played his team’s best players for most of the Game, as Canadian starters Anderson, Peter (Vancouver, BC) and Jamie Borisoff (Vancouver, BC) played the entire first three quarters. Anderson, who scored 10 points in the third quarter alone, completed the game with a team-leading 17 points, sharing this accomplishment with Peter. He also snagged an outstanding 14 rebounds.
“We gelled as a team, game by game throughout the tournament. We felt good coming in the game after yesterday’s performance against Great Britain.” said Bowes. “Our everyday objective is to make the competition rise to our level of play and not the contrary.”
Canada scored on 52% of their field goal attempts and 16% of their three-point attempts.
Ranked #1 by the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation entering the World Cup, Canada’s Men’s team is an international powerhouse that has triumphed in back-to-back Paralympic Games (2000, 2004.
Cycling is the featured sport tomorrow at the Visa Paralympic World Cup, followed by swimming on Saturday and athletics on Sunday. Canada is well represented in the Swimming with five athletes, and Athletics events with eight athletes, but has no cyclist entered to compete.
The Visa Paralympic World Cup is the biggest international, annual multi-sport competition sanctioned by the International Paralympic Committee after the Paralympic Games and has been staged in Manchester, Great Britain for the past two years. The event plays a critical role in providing international competition between Paralympic Games.
