Aquinas Grammar

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James MacSorley from Aquinas Grammar School, Belfast has been selected to the Great Britain U22 Wheelchair Basketball team to play in the European Championships this summer from the 10th-15th July at Stoke Mandeville Stadium.

The team will battle it out against France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey, in the quest to be crowned European Champions.

Head Coach Matt Foden said: ‘We had an incredibly strong group of players to select from, who have all trained hard throughout the season and at recent camps. It made for some really difficult decisions on the final team but we believe we have the right balance in the squad to challenge at the upcoming Championships.

“Due to the age limit only four players remain from our Silver Medal winning team from 2010 and we have eight new faces in the team. It’s also fantastic to see the success of our junior development programme with representatives from all of the home nations. The U22 European Championships is always a tough competition, but we know what we’ve got to do and that we have the talent and determination to do well and achieve our goal of qualifying for next year’s U23 World Championships in Turkey.

James, who has just turned 17, played for the GB men’s B team earlier this year and made such an impression that he was invited to the U22 camp that took place during the bank holiday weekend in June. A couple of days after he returned home he received the long awaited phone call to confirm his selection.