TORONTO, Canada – USA Wheelchair Rugby moves to 4-0 tonight with another win, 71-25 over Colombia.
Solid from the start tonight, the U.S. continued to run various line-ups with contributions across the bench. Strong defense and quick transitions from scores are key elements of the success of the Americans. “We’ve been running 12 players so everybody is fresh, everybody is experienced and I think it’s going to pay off moving forward this week,” said Chuck Aoki.
Top scorers for the U.S. were Clayton Brackett (Birmingham, AL) with 15 and Josh Wheeler (San Tan Valley, AZ) and Chuck Aoki (Minneapolis, MN) each with 13.
Wednesday night will bring the last day of preliminary play in wheelchair rugby as the U.S. will face Canada opening another chapter in their storied rivalry. Both come into tomorrow night’s game 4-0 and have dealt each other big blows in major competitions throughout the years. “We’ve been working really hard on team chemistry and using our entire team to set up our matches with strong opponents and tomorrow we’ve got one – Canada,” said Coach James Gumbert. “We’re excited to renew the rivalry and look forward to seeing them tomorrow.”
The Parapan American Games serve as a qualifier for the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games, with the top finisher in wheelchair rugby securing a spot. The U.S. vs. Canada game will tip off at 8 p.m. EST. Games continue throughout the week with semi-final and final games being held on Thursday, August 13 and Friday, August 14. Wheelchair rugby is one of the sports being live streamed at these Games, check out http://www.paralympic.org/live-sport to catch the action each day.
Follow the action from Toronto on USA Wheelchair Rugby’s Website Twitter and Facebook pages.