The 2009 Paralympic World Cup has just ended. Hosted in Manchester, England and sponsored by Telecoms company BT, it was an extremely successful Disability Sport event.
Over 400 elite athletes from all over the world took part in a wide range of sports events including cycling, swimming and basketball.
Records were broken, including the 100m swimming freestyle by Eleanor Simmonds of the UK. Eleanor is the teenager who also had tremendous success in the Beijing Paralympics in 2008.
The wheelchair basketball was particularly exciting and the men's Gold medal winners were the USA after a terrific scrap with 69-48 win over Australia. The ladies Gold was won by the Netherlands with a 66-42 win over Mexico.
Wheelchair Basketball is only open to wheelchair athletes. Athletes are classified according to their physical ability and are given a points rating between 1 and 4.5. Each team fields five players, plus substitutes, and the team 'balance' cannot exceed a points rating of 14.5.
As in able-bodied Basketball, players must dribble the ball and it is a violation to take more then two pushes on the wheels without dribbling the ball. The whole event can get pretty frenetic and some of the scoring shots were extremely skilful.
Competitors are now looking forward to 2012 and the the young British athletes will be looking forward to making this a very special home event!
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