Newports’ Phil Pratt will be hoping he can emulate Clive Sullivan’s feat of captaining a British team to a world title when he leads the GB Men’s Wheelchair Basketball side into the final of the World Championships in Hamburg today.
Sullivan, the great Hull wing, scored the try in the final game of the 1972 Rugby League World Cup that earned Great Britain the trophy. Now, 46 years on, another Welshman is in charge of a British team hoping to bring home the silverware.
Pratt has already proved an inspirational leader in Germany in his first major competition as captain. In the quarter-final, the round in which Britain had been knocked-out in the last two tournaments, he made 10 rebounds and provided 10 assists in a 67-62 win over Spain as his side reached the final for the first time since 2002.
The Spaniards led by two points with three minutes left to play before a nine-point answered run at the end of the game earned the British team their ticket into the semi-finals. They had a more comfortable ride against Iran, coming out on top 86-63, to secure a final showdown against the six time champions, the USA, in what will be a rematch of the 1994 final.
The Americans, who last won the title in 2002, were the only side to beat the British team in the Pool stages, and go into the final as the only unbeaten team to date. The British squad boasts vast experience, including eight of the 12 athletes who represented ParalympicsGB at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio, where the team returned home with a bronze medal.
Pratt’s side headed into the World Championships in excellent form, going through the Continental Clash in Sheffield undefeated. Along the way they took the scalp of the 2006 world champion, Canada.
They beat South Korea in their opening pool match in Hamburg, 77-58, before going down by seven points to the USA. They then recovered to convincingly beat Poland and Germany to reach the knock-out stages with second place in their pool.
The 24-year-old Pratt played in the 2014 world championships having made his GB senior debut in the B team in 2012. He helped the GB U22 team win the Euroepan title in 2014 and the senior title in Worcester a year later.
He added Paralympic bronze to those two golds in Rio in 2016 and is know chasing the biggest of all titles, the World crown.
TEAM GB RESULTS
GB 77 – 58 South Korea
GB 59 – 66 USA
GB 78 – 46 Poland
GB 62 – 54 Germany
GB 67- 62 Spain QF
GB 86 – 63 Iran SF
PREVIOUS WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Year Venue Winners GB
2014 Korea Australia 7 th
2010 Birmingham, UK Australia 5th
2006 Amsterdam, Netherlands Canada 5th
2002 Kitakuyshu, Japan USA 2nd
1998 Sydney, Australia USA 5th
1994 Edmonton, Canada USA 2nd
1990 Bruges, Belgium France 12th
1986 Melbourne, Australia USA 11th
1983 Halifax, Canada USA 8th
1979 Tampa, USA USA 8th
1975 Bruges, Belgium Israel 3rd
1973 Bruges, Belgium * UK 1st
(* Unofficial World Championships)