FURTHER PARALYMPIC SPOTS SECURED FOR GB

Great Britain’s BC3 Pair have secured a Paralympic spot in Paris this summer.

European silver medallist Will Arnott, from Arborfield, and teenage sensation Sally Kidson from Salisbury won gold at the qualifying event in Japan. They needed to secure at least a bronze medal for GB to add to its athlete quota at the Games.

Supported by ramp assistants Connor Wellfare and Hannah Stewart, the dup did not have a promising start to the tournament. On day one, GB lost to both Greece and Peru. But day two saw victories over Portugal and Singapore, booking their place in the semi-final.

Overcoming Poland 4-1 in the semi-final, Great Britain celebrated the guarantee of Paralympic spots. But Britain didn’t stop there, winning gold after a fantastic final with Japan, triumphing 4-2.

Arnott, 25, explained, “Going into this event, we had lost our last ten games so, to put that behind us, shows the huge improvements we’ve made. We’ve been working so hard, together with our ramp assistants, on the training courts so have it all payoff is amazing.”

19-year-old Kidson said, “We’re so happy to have been able to qualify the spot for the BC3 Pair and now are waiting for the results of selection for Paris.

“We had a difficult start to the week, losing our two games on day one of competition but we managed to turn it around.”

Coach Glynn Tromans said: “This result has been two years in the making. We’ve had to go through some difficult times and hard losses but we’ve achieved something special here.”

While the result means that Great Britain now qualifies for Paris this summer, the athletes will need to wait a bit longer to find out if they have been selected by ParalympicsGB.

Already, Great Britain’s BC1/2 Team had safely earned passage to Paris through the rankings as they have reigned in the number two spot for the last 12 months.

However, it was the end of the road for the BC4 Pair. Lanarkshire duo Stephen McGuire and Fiona Muirhead just missed out qualifying through the rankings so they too competed in Portugal.

McGuire said:

"We are really disappointed but also extremely proud. Last year, we were ranked 14th in the world as a Pair and we have progressed to reach as high as sixth. Our trajectory has been really strong which augurs really well for the future but we just needed that little bit of luck to get over the line and sadly it just didn’t go our way."