The United States and Canada had no trouble beating China and Japan, respectively, on day one of the Wheelchair Rugby competition Friday, September 12.
United States 65 -China 30
Gold medal contenders the United States started strongly as they trounced first-time Paralympians China. The match was even for only 57 seconds when China managed to keep the scoreboard tied 2-2. The USA team became unstoppable with aggressive full-court defensive pressure and organized offence to score more goals than any team at the Athens Paralympic Games where the US top-scored 54 goals against Japan. Will Groulx led the US in scoring on Friday with 16 goals in 14 minutes.
"On paper, we're probably the most disabled but we're probably the most functional group. We train hard," US player Chance Sumner commented after the match. "They [China] haven't been playing for long. For as long as they've been playing they are pretty good and will be a force in the future."
Canada 48 - Japan 40
Canada established their credentials for a Paralympic medal with a convincing victory over Japan. Led by Fabien Lavoie, Ian Chan and Mike Whitehead and without committing any fouls (Japan had 10 exclusions against zero from the Canadians), Canada was in fine form. The Canadian trio combined for 40 goals, the same amount of goals Japan scored.
"We had a shaky start," Lavoie said. "We always want to come out strong and we didn't come out on fire like we would have liked. We managed to fight ourselves back to the intense part of the game though."
Australia 47 - Germany 36
Riley Batt was incredible as he scored 24 goals to help Australia defeat Germany in the group B opener of the Wheelchair Rugby tournament. Batt demonstrated why he is considered the best player in the world both in defense and offence. He added five steals and four assists to his scoring. Australia changed their defense with almost every possession, using full-court pressure or placing three players in the box to create a wall for Germany's attack.
Batt was very confident in their defense in his post match comment: "Down in the key we have three people at a time to try and slow the game up. We are one of the stronger teams in key defense. We make sure all the boys are down the end," he said.
Great Britain 39 - New Zealand 38
Troye Collins scored the winning goal with 3.8 seconds left on the clock to give Great Britain victory over defending gold medalists New Zealand. After New Zealand tied (38-38) through the efforts of captain Daniel Buckingham, the Great Britain players quickly gave the ball to Collins. He held it for 23 seconds before he found the gap in the Kiwis' defense and crossed the goal line.
Collins had a game-high 17 goals and added seven assists.
"It's unbelievable," Collins said. "We have trained four years for this. We narrowly lost to them two years ago in the world championships and four years ago in Athens 2004. We just came out here and gave it our all. We still believed we could beat them. It is truly awesome. Though it's the first game and we still have a long way to go, we have strong self belief."
(BOCOG September 12, 2008)