Commonwealth Games: Scotland's wheelchair basketball women miss out on bronze

Robyn Love and her Scotland team could not get the better of England in the bronze-medal match

It started with a lost wheelchair and ended in a missed opportunity for Scotland's Commonwealth Games women's wheelchair 3x3 basketball team.

A bronze medal was in sight for Robyn Love, Jude Hamer, Jess Whyte and Lynsey Speirs on Tuesday amid the rambunctious surroundings of Smithfield Market. Hosts England were between them and their prize.

The Scots scored the most they had in any game so far. But the problem was England scored two more.

The vastly more experienced team - individually and collectively - edged to a 12-10 success. And edged is the right word, even if the Scots only led twice in the 10-minute contest.

"I'm gutted because I know we can beat them," said captain Love.

Quite a statement to make of an England team comprised of gnarled Paralympians, and a Scotland side with Love and Hamer plus "shiny new ones" Whyte and Speirs.

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But overcoming adversity is commonplace for the Scots. Even as recently as the day they were due to arrive in Birmingham, Whyte's £7,000 wheelchair went missing somewhere between East Midlands Airport to Amsterdam.

It turned up but, more importantly, so did Scotland.

It was clear the players were eager to embrace this opportunity in the new Games discipline. Thumping music throughout the play, a court-side DJ, and a solitary hoop are all key components of this frantic sport. But it's more than a sport; it's a show.

The players were announced on the curtailed court one at a time, pushing their chairs through pyrotechnics. Whyte, last out for the Scots, could have been on a mad one at the Sub Club given the way she was gyrating to the music in her seat.

And when the contest began, it was an astonishing blur of extraordinary chair manoeuvring, dexterous ball-control, and brute force. It's mesmerising to watch.

None of that will matter to the Scottish players right now, though. What matters to them is what might have been but, more than that, what they have experienced these past few days.

"You'll make me greet..." said Love when asked to make sense of it. "I'm just really proud of where we've come from. I've had people from my school days messaging me saying they've been watching.

"I've been to two Paralympics but to compete for Scotland... wow, what a dream. I never thought I'd get this opportunity. It means something different. We're a small, proud country and we were brave today."

So, too, were Scotland's men but they also left with regrets as a bronze medal slipped agonisingly from their grasp for the second consecutive Games.

The Scots quartet had slipped two behind Canada inside the opening 44 seconds and were five adrift at one stage against a team they beat in a one-point game in the pool stages.

Kyle Jimenez was an irrepressible presence and read the blustery conditions better than anyone else to accumulate seven points.

Among that haul was two magnificently composed free throws to close the game to a point with 30 seconds left. But his last-gasp attempt to salvage a medal just missed the target and left him sprawled on the court.

"It's a hard game with the wind and a couple of shots could have gone another way," Jimenez told BBC Sport Scotland. "But as a group we'd take what we've done."