Tokyo Paralympics: Wheelchair basketball player Terry Bywater selected for sixth Games

GB wheelchair basketball player Laurie Williams (centre)Getty Images

Laurie Williams (centre) will be playing in her third Paralympics for Great Britain

British wheelchair basketball player Terry Bywater has been selected for his sixth Paralympics after being named in the Great Britain squad for Tokyo.

Bywater, who made his debut at Sydney in 2000, aged 17, is one of seven players who won bronze for GB in Rio five years ago.

The men's team are the current world and European champions.

The women's squad features 11 of the 12 players who helped GB win world and European silver.

Bywater is joined by Gregg Warburton, who won the tournament's most valuable player at the 2018 Worlds, and the experienced Abdi Jama, while Ian Sagar will captain the team.

World Championship winners Jim Palmer and James MacSorley and 2017 junior world champions Billy Bridge, Lewis Edwards and Ben Fox will all make their Paralympic debuts.

The men face a tough challenge with the top four finishers from 2018 - Great Britain, USA, Australia and Iran all drawn together in the same pool alongside Germany and Algeria. The top four will then for the quarter-finals.

"Competing at the Paralympic Games is the pinnacle of any athlete's careers," said Sagar.

"It's always a huge honour to be selected to represent my country, an honour that will be even greater for me this time having been named captain."

The women's team, which will be co-captained by Maddie Thompson and Amy Conroy, will face hosts Japan as well as Canada, Australia, and Germany in their pool games.

Thompson made her GB debut aged 13 and played at London 2012 before taking a break to have a baby.

"To be selected for my second Paralympic Games means everything to me," she said. "My first Paralympics was amazing, so to be selected for a second Games, after missing Rio to have a child, is an incredible feeling and something I am really proud of.

"Wearing the ParalympicsGB vest always fills me with enormous pride, and knowing my son Zachary will be watching from home, it is going to be even more special in Tokyo.

"There really is no feeling quite like competing at a Paralympic Games and I am really excited to see what this team can achieve in Tokyo."

GB teams

Women: Charlotte Moore (1.0), Sophie Carrigill (1.0), Kayla Bell (1.5), Helen Freeman (4.0), Laurie Williams (2.5), Jude Hamer (4.0), Amy Conroy (C) (4.0), Maddie Thompson (C) (4.0), Lucy Robinson (4.5), Siobhan Fitzpatrick (3.0), Joy Haizelden (2.5), Robyn Love (3.5).

Men: Gaz Choudhry (4.0), Terry Bywater (4.5), Harry Brown (2.5), Abdi Jama (1.0), Gregg Warburton (2.0), Ian Sagar (C) (3.0), Lee Manning (4.5), Ben Fox (3.5), Jim Palmer (1.0), James MacSorley (2.0), Billy Bridge (3.0), Lewis Edwards (3.0)

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