The Great Britain Wheelchair Basketball team pre Paralympic preparation organised by Asia Pacific Sports Management, hosted by the United World College of South East Asia in Singapore was a stunning success. The hospitality of the school from the principal down to the staff, students and parents was overwhelming! In particular it was wonderful to catch up with many P/E staff who had participated in a  level 1 coaching course at the school in 2003.

Much credit must be given to my close friends John McAuliffe (APSM) and Susan Edwards (UWCSEA) who put together a schedule which was benefical to the school and its students and both the South African and Great Britain teams. They are the perfect hosts and its clearly apparent why they are so respected around the school by their peers and the students. Initially i am sure that the guys thought that the school appearances would be too much but by the end of the week Terry Bywater and Jon Pollock were in their element hosting the relevant school assemblies. The interaction between both teams and the students after all games was excellent.

As a preperation playing wise the South African team were a solid opponent. They were chosen as they were in the other pool at the Paralympics . Previously they had not won a game at the Paralympics but had a stunning pool victory over the European Champions Sweden in the pool games. I am unsure where they finally finished due to the withdrawal of Iran but would suspect they would of played off for positions 9 and 10. if so that is a significant step forward and my congratulations to them! We swept the 5 test series 5-0 but the first game in particular was in the balance until the last 3 minutes.

We were quite sad to leave the wonderful hospitality of Singapore behind but I am sure some of the touring party will revisit.

Murray Treseder
HEAD COACH
GREAT BRITIAN WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL TEAM
BRONZE MEDALIST'S BEIJING 2008