Great Britain’s Senior Women will continue their preparations for the 2020 Paralympic Games when they take on Japan and Canada in this weekend’s Osaka Cup (14-16 February).
Hosted at the Osaka Municipal Central Gymnasium in Osaka, Japan, the Osaka Cup has become a regular fixture in British Wheelchair Basketball’s international calendar; with the GB Women finishing runners-up in last year’s final against The Netherlands, the World and European champions.
In what will be their first international competition since claiming silver at last year’s European Championships, Great Britain will begin this year’s Osaka Cup at 1am on Friday morning (UK Time) against the hosts Japan; a team they beat 67-25 in a friendly game on Monday.
On Saturday, the Senior Women will be in back-to-back action; taking on Canada (2am, UK Time), before playing their second game against Japan (5am, UK Time). Their final game of the tournament will be against Canada at 1:30am on Sunday morning (UK Time).
The format is double round-robin with the team with the best record at the end of the tournament declared the winner.
As well as taking to the court in competitive action, the players will also take part in a school visiting programme and a wheelchair basketball lesson with local children.
The tournament will mark the end of a busy few weeks for the GB Women with many of the players travelling to Osaka from the Tokyo recce which included a welcome reception at Urayasu City, a friendly win against Japan and a meeting with the UK Foreign Secretary, Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP.
Commenting ahead of the Osaka Cup, GB Women’s Interim Lead Coach, Dan Price said:
“This will be our first international competition since the European Championships, so it will be a good opportunity to see where we are at, see some of the things we have been working on and face some really good competition against Canada and Japan.
“It’s a wonderful tournament. We are treated phenomenally there; we get a great opportunity to go and visit some schools and give back to the community in Japan. We love going there; they take wonderful care of us and hopefully we will leave there with a better understanding of the things we need to continue to work on.”
GB Game Schedule (all games are UK time)
Friday, 14th February
v Japan (1am)
Saturday, 15th February
v Canada (2am)
v Japan (5am)
Sunday, 16th February
v Canada (1:30am)
How to Watch
All games will be streamed online and can be watched via the following links:
Day 1 – 14 February – https://ytv-athlete.jp/lives/9427
Day 2 – 15 February – https://ytv-athlete.jp/lives/9429
Day 3 – 16 February – https://ytv-athlete.jp/lives/9430
For more information about the Osaka Cup, visit the event website: http://osakacup.org/youkou.html
Follow British Wheelchair Basketball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for results, interviews and game highlights.
The GB Team for the 2020 Osaka Cup
| Number / Role | Name | Classification |
| 4 | Charlotte Moore | 1.0 |
| 5 | Sophie Carrigill | 1.0 |
| 6 | Michaela Bell | 1.5 |
| 7 | Helen Freeman | 4.0 |
| 8 | Laurie Williams | 2.5 |
| 9 | Bethany Wheeler | 3.0 |
| 10 | Amy Conroy | 4.0 |
| 11 | Madeleine Thompson | 4.0 |
| 12 | Sarah Hope | 4.5 |
| 13 | Siobhan Fitzpatrick | 3.0 |
| 14 | Joy Haizelden | 2.5 |
| 15 | Robyn Love | 3.5 |
| Lead Coach | Dan Price | |
| Assistant Coach | Steve Caine | |
| Team Manager | Tara Smith | |
| Physiotherapist | Laura Heathcote | |
| Performance Analyst | Nathan Payne | |
| Team Support | Tom Hignett | |
| Chief Mechanic | Takekazu Okagawa |
