The United States, Canada, Australia and Britain sailed into the wheelchair rugby semifinals at the Beijing Paralympics on Sunday.
The U.S. and Canada finished the top two of the four-team pool A, while Australia and Britain survived from the so-called "group of death" Pool B, which includes defending champion New Zealand and European powerhouse Germany.
The Americans proved their world's top-ranked team quality by outgunning Athens silver medallist Canada 37-32, securing their first place of Pool A with three straight wins. They will face Britons in the semifinals, while Canada, which took the group's second, will meet Pool B No. 1 Australia.
In another match of Pool A, Japan, who lost narrowly their first two matches to Canada and the U.S., embraced their first win after trouncing China 55-38.
The Chinese, most of whom started rugby playing less than two years, presented their best Paralympic show so far and launched brilliant counterattack at the third and the fourth quarter, which, however, can hardly remedy their big loss 28-17 to the Japanese by the first half of the match.
"I'm not surprised with the result at all, and I'm very glad to see my players have shown all their have learned from the training," said Chinese head coach Wen Yan. "Taking the 100-point grading system, I will give them 110 for their performances today."
In a Pool B head-on-head clash between Australia and Britain, both with two wins in hand, the Aussies proved they were a cut above the Britons by winning the match 43-37. The 19 year-old Australian talent Ryley Batt became the shiniest star at the court by contributing his team 22 goals and seven assistant passes.
"We are up against Canada now in the semifinal. We have played them before and have won six out of the seven times, so I am confident in our win," said Batt.
Defending champion New Zealand won a "pride-saving" match against Germany 40-31 to rank the third of the group.
In the 5-8 classification on Monday, New Zealand will play China, while Germany will face Japan. The winners of the matches will fight for the fifth place of the tournament.
(Xinhua News Agency September 14, 2008)