Medal misses but Rio was huge hit for duo
Pride at being inteam GB
Uddingston’s Mike Kerr says Team GB Wheelchair Rugby’s performances at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games prove they’ve bridged the gap with the world’s top teams.
Team GBWR finished fifth in a highly competitive tournament in Rio, missing out on the chance of a medal due to a 5-4 overtime defeat against Canada in the last second of their second Group A game.
Having lost their opener 53-51 to Australia, GB went on to beat Brazil 52-32 and Sweden 56-42 in the fifth/ sixth-place play-off.
Mike (33) says they can be proud of their achievements, and on reflection is relatively pleased with how it went.
“To go in fifth and come out fifth is good, we can’t complain,” he said. “Maintaining our world ranking helps with funding and things like that, so it’s good from that point of view.
“I’m not happy, exactly, with how we did, but on reflection we did very well.
“The top five teams, between the winners Australia and ourselves, was very small, and the games were lost on a couple of points.
“The biggest majority of these teams are the same, in terms of standard, and they’re not going to change much in the next couple of years.
“We bridged the gap from London, though, because we got beat considerably by these teams in 2012, and it was a lot different this time out. We can bridge the gap again, and it’s achievable; we can definitely catch Canada. The other three are going to be harder to overtake, but a lot of teams, I think, are there for the taking.”
Mike added: “For such a young new, young team as ourselves I think we did very well and can be very proud of what we did.
“I’m obviously disappointed that we missed out on a medal, but in perspective we did very well and can be proud. We were up against the best in the world, and the five-toone ratio was very tight. We have to remember that these teams have been together for a number of years and have been playing together consistently.
“On the day against Australia we were just beat by the better team. Canada was different; we should have won that game and we know it. Again, they were more experienced, but that was heartbreaking, to lose in the dying seconds of overtime was hard to take.
“We had targeted that as a game we thought we could definitely win.”
Whether Mike will aim to be part of the team in Tokyo in 2020 is a decision he still has to make, and he will put a lot of thought into his next step.
“We have the World Championships in two years’ time and if we can keep the nucleus of this squad together we will be there or thereabouts,” he said.
“We have a debrief in December, so we’ll all get together and talk about the Rio Paralympics.
“I’m going to take a time out, have a bit of a break, and see where I want to go now. I don’t want to rush into any decisions, and we have a bit of time.
“The next big event is the European Championships in June, so I’ll probably make a decision at the start of the year.”