Mike’s proud of Rio team

Cathkin man Mike Kerr believes Team GB Wheelchair Rugby can be proud of their achievements at the Rio Paralympic Games.

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.

The 33 year old (pictured) said the team’s performances at the Games prove they have bridged the gap with the world’s elite.

“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.

“For such a young new team as ourselves I think we did very well and can be very proud of what we did.

“We were up against the best in the world, and the five-to-one 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.