Warburton fires Britain to opening win at Paralympics basketball

PARIS: Gregg Warburton starred as Great Britain opened the wheelchair basketball tournament at the Paris Paralympics with a 76-55 win against Germany on Thursday.

Warburton, twice a Paralympic bronze medallist in 2016 and 2020, racked up an impressive 24 points to give his country victory in their first Group A game at the Bercy Arena. “Opening game, obviously a few nerves, but we got them out of the way early,” said Warburton, 27.

“We´ve got a lot of work still to do, but first one in the books, good start.” The Lancashire-native had both feet amputated when he was six-months-old and was born with an abnormality to his left arm, resulting in it being shorter and having only two fingers.

Despite his dominant performance on the court, Warburton still found faults in his performance: “It´s far from perfect. I still missed some easy shots. “But I´m happy with how the game went and, most importantly, we got a win. “It was an honour to play in front of such a good crowd,” he added of the thousands of fans packed into the arena.

The Britons made a fast start in the first quarter, with captain Philip James Pratt assisting Warburton for their first two-pointer of the tournament. Matthias Guntner led the fightback in the second quarter as the Germans overcame their sluggish start, but Britain still led 32-25 at the break even though Guntner soon found his shooting touch and would finish with 19 points.

Midway through the third quarter Thomas Boehme sank an excellent three-pointer to reduce the gap to four points and keep the pressure on Britain. Germany now seemed in the ascendancy with Britain beginning to miss regularly from the floor but points from Warburton and free-throws from Ben Fox kept the Britons´ noses ahead. Britain increased their lead to 10 points by the end of the third quarter and proved too strong in the final quarter as they cruised to a handsome opening win.