Warburton and Love revel in strong start for wheelchair basketball teams

Gregg Warburton and Robyn Love propelled ParalympicsGB to back-to-back wheelchair basketball victories at the Bercy Arena.

The men’s side opened the competition in the heart of Paris with a 76-55 win over Germany before the women followed it up with a dominant 69-34 triumph over Spain.

Warburton was on fire in the French capital, banking a total of 24 points in what became a comfortable win for the British team – who are hoping improve on their bronze medal from Tokyo three years ago.

Germany hauled themselves back into the contest early in the third quarter and closed the gap to just four points but Britain quickly shut the door and pushed ahead once more through a defensive masterclass by Lee Manning and sharp-shooter Warburton’s aim.

ParalympicsGB are chasing a first gold medal in wheelchair basketball after four bronze medals out of the last five Games and, after missing the final in his two Paralympics so far, Warburton has no ambitions of repeating that result in Paris.

“My performance was far from perfect,” he said. “I missed some easy shots and I’m relatively self-critical but we spoke about intent and how we want to play.

“That’s what feeds into the rest of our game and what my mindset was.

“I’m going to come out, and no one was going to stop me on my way to helping the team as much as possible.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t say that our main aim was to be on that top spot.”

An hour later, the women matched the men’s dominance on court, with Jade Atkin scoring 19 points in the first two quarters of their win against Spain.

She was soon subbed off as ParalympicsGB gave valuable court time to their squad, while Love worked her magic in the closing stages with a total of 18 defensive rebounds across the match.

And the three-time Paralympian believes it was a performance to take confidence from as GB chase a maiden Paralympic medal in Paris.

“In these group stages, you can’t get too high or too low but I’m so proud with how we performed,” Love said.

“Jade and Lucy [Robinson] really came out and dominated today which was incredible to see.”

Meanwhile, Sophie Carrigill added: “The girls performed exactly as we wanted to. Everyone got time on court today and delivered.

“That impact coming off the bench is our super strength and we can always change things up and be super impactful.”

The men’s and women’s teams will return to the Bercy Arena in two days’ time, with both set to take on Canada.