Join AUS Squad
Back To News
The Australian Steelers will play for a Paralympic bronze medal after a crushing overtime loss in their wheelchair rugby semi-final against Japan.
The Steelers went down 52-51 at Arena Champs de Mars on Sunday, sending them to the bronze medal playoff for the second consecutive Paralympics. They finished fourth in Tokyo.
“We don’t want to go home empty-handed,” six-time Paralympian Ryley Batt said. “We want to take home something. It was meant to be gold, we wanted redemption after Tokyo. But unfortunately, now we will have to go for the bronze.
“It’s happened. We can’t change it now. I wish we could turn back time but we can’t.”
With scores locked at 47-all with 15 seconds to play in the fourth quarter, the Steelers called a strategic timeout to reset the shot clock and select the play that would win them the match.
With a successful inbound pass, the game would have been in their control.
But the pass from Australian captain Chris Bond was stolen by Japan’s Ike Yukinobu who managed the clock to send it to overtime.
When Yukinobu won the tip-off for his team to resume play, Japan scored first and held their nerve by not committing a single overtime error to lock Australia out of the contest.
“That’s sport. It can be cruel sometimes. It definitely hurts,” Batt said.
“We were in control the whole game. It was an awesome game. Both teams played unreal. I’m really happy with our performance. Unfortunately, in the last two minutes, Bondy and I both made a big mistake, very uncharacteristic for us.
“But I’m actually pretty proud of the team. That performance against, in my eyes, the favourites for this tournament. To lose by one point in overtime, to have a chance to win it with 15 second to go, I’m bloody proud of this team.”
It was certainly not the way Australian captain Chris Bond wanted to remember his 250th international appearance.
“We’re going to give ourselves some time right now to soak it in and to breathe and feel the pain because we’re going to use it for motivation,” Bond said.
“We’ve got one game to play now and we’re not going to half-arse it. We’re going to come together. I’ve said we’ve got a very strong team and we want to come away and mean something for the last three years.”
Japan will meet the winner of the semi-final between the US and Great Britain. The loser will face Australia in the bronze medal match at 9:30pm on Monday (AEST).
Watch the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games on the 9Network and 9Now live and free, and on Stan Sport till September 8
By: Tim Mannion, Paralympics Australia
Published: 2 September 2024
