2018 GIO Wheelchair Rugby World Championship

The 2018 GIO Wheelchair Rugby World Championship was won by Japan with a 62-61 victory over previously undefeated Australia. The USA claimed the bronze medal with a 47-36 win over Great Britain. The tournament was held in Sydney, Australia from August 5-10, 2018.

After Pool play, Australia and the United States, the top two teams in the world, went 5-0 in winning their respective pools with Japan and Great Britain in second.

In the semifinals, 4th ranked Japan defeated the USA 51-46 to advance to the Gold medal match against Australia, who edged Great Britain 59-57. The USA would face Great Britain, a team that they defeated 47-41 in pool play, for the Bronze. The Gold medal match was also a repeat of a pool play one in which Australia won 65-52 against Japan.

Conclusion

The 2018 GIO IWRF World Championships proved to be very competitve. Three of the four top ranked teams made the semi-finals with 5th ranked Great Britain also making the final group. Canada entered the Worlds ranked 3rd, but fielded a young team and finished in 6th place.

The medalists all had one loss in the tournament. Japan came in second in Pool play to Australia, but then defeated previously undefeated USA in the semifinals and then Australia, who was also undefeated, in the Gold medal match.

France had a strong performance in the tournament, edging Canada for 5th place. Ireland was the only team that did not win a match, but they had competive matches against Sweden and against Poland.

The International Wheelchair Rugby Federation has to be pleased with the competive nature of the tournament. Aside from the top few teams, the standard of play for other teams has risen dramatically. That was apparent early in the tournament with Canada losing to Poland.

Pools with IWRF World Rankings (As of June 19)

A: Australia (1), Japan (4), Sweden (6), New Zealand (9), Denmark (8), Ireland (19)
B: USA (2), Canada (3), Great Britain (5), France (7), Colombia (14), Poland (17)

Schedule (Sydney is 14 hours ahead of ET in New York)

Quaycentre (Competition Court 1)			Genea Netball Centre (Competition Court 2)
Sunday 05 August			Sunday 05 August
12:30		Opening Ceremony
14:00	M1	NZL 36-66 AUS	14:30	M2	IRE 37-57 JPN
16:30	M3	CAN 42-51FRA	17:00	M4	SWE 54-57 DEN
19:00	M5	COL 32-58 USA	19:00	M6	POL-GBR
Monday 06 August			Monday 06 August
11:00	M8	DEN 56-47 IRE	10:00	M7	JPN 56-37 NZL
13:30	M10	USA 47-41GBR	12:30	M9	AUS 71-38 SWE
16:00	M12	POL 45-43 CAN	15:30	M11	COL 45-50 FRA
18:30	M14	IRE 47-52 SWE	18:00	M13	DEN 55-54 NZL
Tuesday 07 August			Tuesday 07 August
11:00	M16	GBR 55-43 CAN	10:00	M15	COL 50-43 POL
13:30	M18	DEN 49-61 AUS	12:30	M17	FRA 39-54 USA
16:00	M20	SWE 46-48 JPN	15:30	M19	NZL 52-42 IRE
18:30	M22	FRA 51-39 POL	18:00	M21	GBR 57-20 COL
Wednesday 08 August			Wednesday 08 August
10:00	M23	AUS 70-44 IRE	10:00	M24	JPN 52-42 DEN
12:30	M25	USA 47-33 POL	12:30	M26	CAN 59-46 COL
16:00	M27	SWE 54-52 NZL	16:00	M28	GBR 47-41 FRA
18:30	M29	AUS 65-52 JPN	18:30	M30	USA 54-47 CAN
Thursday 09 August			Thursday 09 August
11:00	M31	NZL 59-61 COL	10:30	M32	POL 49-44 IRE
13:00	M33	DEN 51-51 CAN	13:00	M34	FRA 54-42 SWE
16:00	M35	AUS 59-57 GBR	15:30	M36	USA 46-51 JPN
Friday 10 August			Friday 10 August
9:30	M37	11th COL 39-44 POL	9:30	M38	9th NZL 51-40 IRE
11:30	M39	5th CAN 51-52 FRA	11:30	M40	7th DEN 51-48 SWE
13:45	M41	Bronze Medal GBR 36-47 USA
16:00	M42	Gold Medal AUS 61-62 JPN