Richmond, BC – Canada’s Patrice Simard (Quebec City) and Trevor Hirschfield (Parksville, BC)were both honoured at the World Wheelchair Rugby Championships final celebration Sunday night with Team All-Star Awards.

Though Canada finished in fifth place, officials were impressed with Simard who finished the tournament with 45 points, tops in his class at 1.5. Hirschfield, classified at 1.0, was impressive defensively throughout the tournament consistently guarding players in higher classes.

Winner of the Most Valuable Player award was Australia’s Ryley Batt, who led all scorers with 206 points throughout the tournament.

USA won the tournament with a 57-45 win over Australia while Japan picked up their first ever World Championship medal defeating Sweden 53-48 in the bronze medal game.

Photographs of today's games are available at http://www.2010wwrc.com/media/media-kit. Please credit BC Wheelchair Sports Association (BCWSA)/Kevin Bogetti-Smith.

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About wheelchair rugby

Wheelchair rugby is a team sport for male and female quadriplegics. The physically demanding full-contact team sport is played indoors on a hardwood basketball court between two teams of four players. It is a unique sport that combines some elements of basketball, handball, and ice hockey, and was created in Canada in1977 by a group of athletes with a disability in Manitoba.

About the 2010 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships

The 2010 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships took place at the Richmond Olympic Oval from September 21-26. The tournament featured teams from 12 countries, including Canada (2002 World Champions), New Zealand (2004 Paralympic Champions), USA (2008 Paralympic Champions) and Australia (2010 Coupe Canada Cup holders). Also competing were Japan, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Great Britain, Poland, Finland and Argentina.

Follow us on Twitter: @2010wwrc, Facebook "2010 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships," and at www.sportscanada.tv, where games and athlete interviews will be archived.

Media Contacts

FLASH QUOTES

September 24, 2010

AUS 66   BEL 41  

Australia Team Player Ryan Scott (#11):

We’ve taken our momentum into every game.  We normally start slow but this tournament we’ve broken those normal traditions and we’ve controlled a lot of the game from start to finish.

Belgium Team player Ronald Verhaegen (#9):

We knew it was going to be the hardest game in our pool but we had to try. We were confident.  We were going for it.  But from the first minute we saw the pressure was very big for Australia.

With the small squad we have players got very tired and so it got tougher and tougher for us.  Australia is just stronger than us.  We have to admit that. But if you are a sportsman you always have to play like you have a chance.

JPN 56   NZL 47  

New Zealand Team Player Cameron Leslie (#1):

We would have liked to have pushed them a little bit more.

We were expecting to do a lot more than this. But the huge positive is that we’ve all stuck together as a team.  We haven’t turned on each other.  We’ve got a good bunch of guys, a good mix of old and young.  I think some of the older guys have learned from past experience what not to do.

Japan Team player Shin Shimakawa (#13):

It was a good game.  We are doing well because we are all one as a team. When we think we can beat a team easily we lose, so we don’t think that way.

SWE  41   GER  31

Sweden Team player Andreas Collin (#14):

It was a good win.  We planned to stick to the plan we had and to destroy them.

Germany Team player Andrej Leonhard (#8):

We were trying some different line ups and we were rushing a little and got out of mental control and that’s why we lost.

The team spirit is pretty good right now.  After a loss our heads are down but the chemistry of the team is pretty good.  We are happy to have our new coach and are going forward.

JPN    51  POL 50  

Japan Team player Shin Shimakawa (#13):

It was very exciting.  I thought that my heart would stop! We never gave up. We thought it might be a close game but it was more than what we thought.

Poland Team player Rafal Rocki (#7):

It was a very hard, very tight game.  We could have won this game.  We have some disappointment because we led almost the whole game.

We can say also that we are surprised we played so well.  It was one of our best games ever.  We have very good chemistry in the team.

AUS  69   ARG  24

Argentina Team player Ignacio Rizzi (#8):
We tried to do our best but with Australia it is hard to do.

It is like a dream for us to be here.  It is all new for us.  We are learning a lot.  When we brought wheelchair rugby to Argentina we never dreamed that in five years we would be here.

Australia Team Player Joshua Hose (#4):

We gave Riley a bit of a rest and gave some of the subs a bit of experience.

We’re going to prepare for tomorrow like we have for every game at this event. We’ll do the simple things right and hopefully win it.

USA 49  CAN 48

Canada Head Coach Kevin Orr:

 We got our lead by playing intense defense and we put everything out on the court and that's really all we ask the guys, is to leave everything out there. We rotated our lines like we did.  And the guys when they use that much energy they run out of gas.  We have to credit the United States for what they did.  They used their lines as well but when it came down to the end we just didn't have anything left in the tank. I really have to take our hats off to our guys for the work they did on the court.

We've got to learn how to win.  That's one of the things that you find the will to win when it counts.  We're building this program for the London Paralympics.  We would have liked to win a world championship here on our home soil but the big picture is that we're really trying to win a gold medal at the paralympic games.  With the effort we had tonight we're well on our way.

Canadian Player Ian Chan
A very tough loss. Obviously I am very disappointed in the way it turned out in the end especially with myself having the ball and turning it over in the dying seconds of the game.  But all in all I'm very proud of the way the guys competed.  We've just got to move on and turn the channel tomorrow because we've still got to play.

It could have gone the other way and it was a very hard fought game.  We squandered a lead going into the 3rd and 4th quarter.  Obviously that's really tough to take right now.

USA player Will Groulx (#10)

 It was a great team win for us. This game like a lot of games is about momentum.

It was a huge benefit to have the time out at the end.  We always say we never want to take them home with us but having that one at the end was huge.

It's always a pleasure to play in front of a good crowd.