TWO wheelchair basketball teams with Coventry close to their heart will be gearing up to take part in the National Wheelchair Basketball finals at the University of East London SportsDock this weekend.
Coventry Crusaders will be competing in the National Premier League playoffs over the weekend having finished third during the regular season.
They will be taking on Sheffield Steelers on Saturday for a place in the final.
The Crusaders are one of the biggest wheelchair basketball clubs in the UK with three teams currently entered in the National League.
Meanwhile Coventry players Sarah Hope and Kayla Bell, who have both featured for Great Britain at international tournaments will be competing for Worcester Wolves to be crowned champions of the inaugural Womens Premier League.
It is the first professional disability sport competition in the country and the only professional female wheelchair basketball league in the world.
Wolves finished in fourth place in the regular season, meaning that they’ll now play against league leaders Loughborough Lightning in this weekends playoff semi final.
Former GB athlete Sarah Hope said: “There’s no real difficulty balancing playing for both Coventry and Worcester.
“It definitely helps that both of my coaches understand that I want to be involved in both leagues to help me become the best player that I can.”
Both games will be available for fans to watch from home, as their semi finals will be streamed on British Wheelchair Basketball’s YouTube page.
Should both teams make the final, their games will be broadcast on BBC Sport.
Sarah added: “I love that watching wheelchair basketball is so much easier now.
“It used to be that we only ever saw it on TV every four years with the Paralympics and I think that gave people the wrong impression about who plays it.
“The fact that you can watch a national finals makes the sport a lot more accessible to potential athletes, knowing that it’s played regularly, but also to sports fans in general.”
The playoff finals bring together the top teams from across the country for a weekend to determine the winners of the Women’s and National Premier Leagues, the Junior competition and divisions one, two and three.
This will be the first playoff tournament since 2019 as competitive wheelchair basketball in Britain took a 20 month break due to coronavirus.
