Manning stars in historic world championship win

Peterborough’s Lee Manning is feeling on top of the world after starring for Great Britain at the World Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Hamburg.

The 28 year-old Paralympian, a former Jack Hunt School pupil, was in the men’s team that pulled off a massive shock by beating USA 79-62 in the final to claim their first ever world championship crown.

The Americans were the 2016 Paralympic Games gold medallists (Great Britain took the bronze) and were red-hot favourites to win Sunday’s final after beating GB 66-59 in the group stages.

GB beat Korea 77-58 and Poland 78-46 in their other group games and then saw off Spain 67-62 in the quarter-finals and Iran 86-63 in the semi-finals.

Manning scored 12 points in the historic final win .

He said: “It’s one of the greatest honours there is to just play in the world championships - never mind win it. This is my second world championships after South Korea in 2014, when we finished seventh.

“There’s nothing that can describe it. The buzz you get from representing your country and having GB across the chest, nothing can compare to it.”

Manning started playing wheelchair basketball in 2005 after experiencing the sport in a taster session at his school.

His other major honours include winning European gold and silver in 2015 and 2017 reapectively.

World champion Lee Manning in action and inset.