The Canadian Women’s National Wheelchair Basketball Teams won gold at the 2010 Paralympic Cup held May 27-30, 2010 in Manchester, defeating last year’s ( and 2008 Champions the Netherlands 62-46 and finished the tournament undefeated. The Australian Gliders won the bronze playoffs defeating the developing Great Britain squad 58-22 after an even first half.
The Canadian Women who are currently ranked 5th in the World were competing in the competition for the first time with Team GB ranked 8th, Australia’s Gliders 3rd and the Netherlands 6th. At the outset, despite the rankings the smart money was on an Australia Netherlands final and a Dutch hat-trick but the Canadians upset those predictions with consistent, disciplined play. In fact they dominated the Championship outscoring their opponents with an impressive 242-163 margin in their four games. The final against the Netherlands was their closest match as could be expected , The Dutch battled hard and yet trailed by 17 points going into the fourth quarter. The Canadians stuck at it and were able to narrow the deficit to just 4 points midway through last quarter. Coach Johnson made some timely strategic changes which enabled the Canadians to established a comfortable lead in the final minutes of the game.
