Sport-by-sport - Wheelchair Rugby
Troye Collins
Related content
| Chairman | Kevin Aitchison | |
|---|---|---|
| Chief Executive | David Pond | |
| Performance Director | Tom O'Conor |
Sport Profile
| Funding Award (2009-2013) | £2,361,600 |
| Best London 2012 Performance | 5th place |
| Athletes on World Class Performance Programme | 11 |
| Press Officer tel | http://www.gbwr.org.uk/main/contact.php |
| Website | http://www.gbwr.org.uk/ |
| National governing body | Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby Ltd |
"To experience wheelchair rugby at international level is to experience incredible athletes at the peak of their physical and mental condition tackling the most demanding of challenges.Without National Lottery funding it would justnot be possible for our athletes to access the sports science, medicine, research and international competition that is critical if we are to compete with the best teams in the world – thank you to all Lottery players."
Great Britain Wheelchair Basketball Chief Executive David Pond
Wheelchair rugby, also known as ‘Murderball’, is an action packed high impact sport in which the performance and agility of the wheelchair can help give the athletes that vital margin that could make the difference between winning losing.
Team GB Wheelchair rugby team finished agonisingly close to winning a medal at the last two Paralympic Games, finishing fourth in both the Athens and Beijing. UK Sport has left no stone unturned to try and help them move in to the medal zone increasing investment from £979,000 for Beijing to £2,361,000 for the London cycle (2009-13).
Eleven athletes are supported through the National Lottery funded World Class Performance Programme which has been designed to allow them to focus more of their time on training and preparation.
The UK Sport Research and Innovation team has worked closely with the athletes and technology partner Loughborough University on individual chair camber studies to optimise straight line speed and agility.
A partnership between UK Sport, McLaren Applied Technologies and Loughborough University uses a novel indoor player tracking system to begin to understand the demands of the game. Its tracks each athlete to see the distance covered, speeds achieved and positioning on the court.
Justin Frishberg and Paul Shaw have been through UK Sport’s Paralympic Coach Development Initiative which was launched in April 2011. The Paralympic-specific programme came about following a period of consultation with the sports who had requested assistance in the development of the coaching workforce through Mission 2012.
UK Sport Major Events teams also supported the GB Wheelchair Rugby World Cup being staged in Sheffield in 2009. This was one of 118 major sporting events supported by The National Lottery funded Major Events Programme aimed at helping our athletes experience competing on home soil as part of the preparations for London 2012.
Did You Know?
An elite Wheelchair Rugby player has to replace his/her wheelchair approximately every 18 months due to the damage it suffers from playing the sport.
Selected Athletes:
Kylie Grimes
Jonathan Coggan
Bulbul Hussain
Myles Pearson
Mike Kerr
Andrew Barrow
Steve Brown (Captain)
David Anthony
Mandip Sehmi
Ross Morrison
Aaron Phipps
