Canada to play for fifth place at wheelchair rugby world championships

The Canadian wheelchair rugby team is peaking at the right time at the GIO 2018 IWRF Wheelchair Rugby World Championships in Sydney, Australia. Thanks to an incredible 52-51 victory over Denmark in its crossover game on Thursday, Canada will play for a fifth-place finish, its goal heading into the tournament. 

It was a tight, thrilling battle throughout the entire game. Denmark led 13-11 after the first quarter, but Canada came back to tie it up at the halfway mark. Canada pulled away to take the lead in the fourth quarter and were able to hold on for the huge triumph. 

“We left an exciting one, but that’s kind of how we like to do it,” said Canada’s Travis Murao. “We’ve slowly built momentum throughout the tournament, it’s a long tournament, so it’s great that we had the opportunity and hopefully we can carry that into the game against France.”

After going 1-4 in preliminary play, Canada has rebounded to make its goal of a Top 5 finish at the world championships a possibility. Standing in the nation’s way will be France, who regardless of a win or loss against the Canadians will earn its best result at the world championships. Canada lost to France in its opener of the tournament earlier in the week, but has improved its play since then.  

Canada will close out its 2018 world championships campaign Thursday night at 9:30 p.m. ET. Canada versus France will be broadcast live from Sydney, Australia on CBCSports.ca and Facebook.com/CDNParalympics. 

Feature Photo: Kevin Bogetti-Smith/Wheelchair Rugby Canada