Australian Steelers take out bronze at 2024 Paralympic Games

Mon, Sep 2, 2024, 10:20 PM
Nathan Williamson
by Nathan Williamson
The Australians have claimed bronze at the 2024 Paris Paralympics. Photo: Getty Images
The Australians have claimed bronze at the 2024 Paris Paralympics. Photo: Getty Images

The Australian Steelers have taken out bronze after a tense 50-48 win over defending gold medalist Great Britain at the Paralympics in Paris.

It was a rematch of the event's opening match after they went down 58-55 to the Brits to kick off their campaign.

Tickets to 2024 Wallabies home Tests are available here.

Wins over France and Denmark booked their place in the semi-finals, before an extra-time defeat to eventual gold medalist Japan left them battling for bronze.

The Aussies had a chance late in the semi-final against the Japanese to break the deadlock, only for the ball to be turned over and Japan kicked clear in extra-time.

This set up the clash with Great Britain, with the two teams evenly poised through the contest.

They were deadlocked at each break leading into the final quarter before the Australians made their move.

With GB on the attack a minute into the quarter, captain Ryley Batt forced the mistake and turnover to give Australia a chance to build a two point lead.

It's an advantage they held throughout the game despite a late surge from the Brits to secure the medal.

"It's very good but a bit bittersweet thought," an emotional Batt told the Nine Network post match "We probably should be playing tonight in the final but unfortunately those little errors in the semi, it was bloody hard to sleep last night.

"The guys and girls bounced back and it's actually incredible the amount of people in Australia that have sent so much support.

"It's good that we bounced back and got this medal, coming into these Paralympics I was pretty content with getting a medal with the quality we had here.

"...Yeah, it's not gold. That sucks but we've got to move on from that. We'll take the bronze, we'll take the rose gold. I've now got the full set — two gold, one silver and a bronze — and a few world titles. I'm pretty happy with that."

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