August 14, 2015
U.S. Wheelchair Team Going For Gold
The night we have been waiting for has arrived, as the United States and Canada will play for the first ever wheelchair rugby Gold Medal at the Parapan Am Games. At stake for the winner, is qualification for the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016. Just two days ago, the Pool game between USA and Canada went into double overtime before the USA won 60-59. A large crowd is expected to watch another thriller. Others will view the match stream at 9pm ET by paralympics.org/live-sport
Paralympic Qualification Process
The International Wheelchair Rugby Federation oversees the process where 8 teams will qualify for the Paralympics held September 7-18, 2016. The qualification process is explained in the following web page. http://www.rio2016.com/sites/default/files/users/rio2016_files/wheelchair-rugby-paralympics.pdf
In short, qualifying teams will include
- the host country Brazil
- 2104 World Champion winner Australia
- 2015 Parapan Am Games Winner (Toronto, Canada)
- European Division A Championship – 2 highest ranked teams (Sep 13-20 Pajulahti, Finland)
- Asia-Oceania Championship – the next highest ranked team as Australia has already qualified (Oct 26-Nov 2 Chiba City, Japan)
- 2016 IWRF Paralympic Qualification Tournament – 2 highest ranked teams (TBA) or if the tournament is not held, then the 2 highest ranked teams on the IWRF World Ranking list as of May 1, 2016.
For the latest IWRF rankings (April 19, 2015) see http://www.iwrf.com/?page=iwrf_rankings
