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LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 08: Sadegh Bigdeli of the Islamic Republic of Iran and teammates Davood Alipourian and Seyedsaeid Ebrahimibaladezaei block a ball during the Men's Sitting Volleyball Gold Medal match between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Islamic Republic of Iran on day 10 of the London 2012 Paralympic Games at ExCel on September 8, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Dennis Grombkowski/Getty Images)
Iran settled for silver in Paralympics sitting volleyball
The Iranian squad accepted defeat against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Saturday getting the silver of the men's Sitting Volleyball competition at 2012 Paralympics in London.
LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 08: Adnan Manko of Bosnia and Herzegovina and teammate Dzevad Hamzic of Bosnia and Herzegovina block a ball during the Men's Sitting Volleyball Gold Medal match between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Islamic Republic of Iran on day 10 of the London 2012 Paralympic Games at ExCel on September 8, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Dennis Grombkowski/Getty Images)
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Team China celebrate winning gold during the awarding ceremony for the women's sitting volleyball at the London 2012 Paralympic Games in London, Britain, on Sept. 7, 2012. (Xinhua/Chen Yehua) |
Andrea Green hopes for better performance at Rio 2016
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Interview on WikiNews with GB Captain Claire Harvey can be read here.
GB men pleased with 8th in Sitting Volleyball rankings
Great Britain's men pronounced themselves pleased to finish 8th overall in the Paralympic Sitting Volleyball tournament, after a straight-sets defeat to China at the ExCeL this afternoon (Friday).
As with Wednesday's match against Paralympic champions Iran, they looked the better side for periods, and could easily have taken third set, which was level at 22-22 before the Chinese scored three quick points to seal victory.
Overall in the 10-team tournament, GB secured a single victory - over Morocco in the group stages, to secure a quarter-final place - while suffering six defeats.
"We've come a long way - two years ago we were losing to Morocco and they have ended up last in the tournament," said James Roberts, who switched to Sitting Volleyball from Rowing after the Beijing Paralympics because of disability classification changes.
"It's been great to have the home support. I had no idea we would have this kind of support day-in and day-out and we're truly grateful for that," added Roberts, from Prestatyn.
Both GB's Sitting Volleyball teams were disbanded in 1991 and only reinstated after London won the bid to host the 2012 Games and Captain Rob Richardson said: "Finishing eight was a massive achievement.
“We targeted the Morocco match - as a team they are ranked above us but we thought we had the game to beat them and we won that, which was great.
“We got ourselves into the quarter-finals and I think we played a superb game against Iran.
Londoner Richardson added: “Maybe we were a little bit greedy in that we wanted to beat Brazil or one of those top-ranked teams. Unfortunately we weren't able to do that but I have no doubt we will be doing that in months to come, not years to come.
"We've got people playing in our team who have only been playing for three years whereas China have got people who've been playing 15 or 20 years and that's the same for every other team out there.
“So what we've done in a short space of time is quite amazing really."
Read more and the comments from the ParalympicsGB website.