Cork connection play a huge part in the bronze medal success of the Irish wheelchair basketball team

THE Irish Wheelchair Basketball team came home from European Division C Basketball Championships in Sarajevo, Bosnia with a bronze medal, which was a superb achievement from all the team and coaching staff.

There was plenty of Cork connections as their head coach was Con Coughlan who is from Ballinhassig.

Assistant coach is Paul Ryan from Ballygarvan and players Jack Quinn, hails from Kilcully, Conor Coughlan lives in Ballinhassig and Derek Hegarty is from the heart of the Northside in Hollyhill.

Jack Quinn, who plays with the Rebel Wheelers with the two coaches and other two players was delighted and so proud of their achievements at the tournament.

“I personally was thrilled with the whole team and coaching staff as it was a very big opportunity and an honour to represent our country on the European stage,” Jack said.

“The Division C European Championships were held in Sarajevo in Bosnia from the 17th-24th September. 

"We had Portugal, Finland and Armenia in a very difficult group. 

"We beat Finland 62-48 in our first game, we then lost to Portugal 63-47 in the second game and we beat Armenia 80-14 in the third game. 

"However, we then lost to Czech Republic 59-49 in the semi final, but we recovered to beat Bulgaria 67-48 in the third and fourth place play-off to win the bronze medal.

“We put in 13 months of hard training and preparation for this tournament. 

"We travelled to either Dublin or Portlaoise most weekends if our clubs didn’t have a National League game so we all could train as a full squad. 

"It was originally meant to be held in June / July, but we were informed in April that it was pushed out until late September so that gave us more time to prepare.

“Our strength and conditioning coach Alan Dineen is also a Cork man, he is from Togher and he made sure we were putting in the hard work both on court and off the court. 

"He had us in the gym to make sure we were as fit as possible to compete over there and he gave us the right diets to help us get in the best condition for the tournament. 

"Mallow man Ronan Mills was our physio and he was at the championships to make sure any injuries were looked after.

“Tiernan O’Donnell from Limerick was top scorer and top rebounder of the tournament. 

"Conor Coughlan and Matthew Rollston, who hails from Belfast also made the team of the tournament, which was a great achievement.

“I was definitely nervous before the semi final as it was probably one of the biggest occasions to date I was involved in, however, we all left everything on the court. 

"The European Championships is without a shadow of a doubt the biggest event of my career so far, so we all were a bit nervous, however, I’d be fairly comfortable dealing with nerves so it didn’t bother me too much.

“It’s obviously a huge honour to win a European medal for your country so I was delighted to get over the line in the play-off game, especially when I saw how upset the lads were the night before after losing the semi final. 

"I was incredibly proud of how we came together and put in such a good performance in the bronze medal game. 

"However, there’s still a small feeling that we should have been coming home with a gold medal, but still I’m incredibly happy with the bronze.

“The next Division C European basketball championships won’t be until 2025 so we have to wait a while to give that Division another good go and set our goal for promotion to the B Division at least, but the gold medal will be our ultimate goal.

“For this season, with the club, we’re going to try to win each trophy available to us at National Level, however, even though we have been very successful over the last few years, it’s gets harder and harder as the teams around the country are improving all the time which is very good for Wheelchair Basketball in the country.

“Next Summer, myself and Conor will have a competition to play in with the Irish U23 squad, so we will start focusing and preparing for that after Christmas.

“The team and coaching staff would like to thank Healthcare 21 and MSD Brinny for sponsoring us for the tournament. 

"We would also like to thank Pepsi Co for running a huge staff fundraising event for us as well and the schools around Cork for holding fundraising days for us,” Jack added.