Britain were hoping for a golden end to their surprise run to the final but were under the cosh from the start and never recovered from an opening quarter in which their opponents took a 19-10 lead.

Winning the third quarter 12-7 testified to their spirit, but the Dutch moved away again in the final quarter, which they won 18-8.

Mariska Beijer did the damage for The Netherlands, contributing 21 of their points.

For Britain, Robyn Love was top scorer with 12 points.

Britain’s men will seek to earn gold in tomorrow’s final, although they will also have their work cut out as they face United States, the Paralympic champions.

Germany’s women mounted a strong fightback to beat China to the bronze medal 44-43.

They managed to finish on the podium despite being 28-23 down at half-time,and 37-36 down going into the final quarter.

It was another low point for China, whose women’s assistant coach was sent home earlier in the week for striking one of his players.

Earlier in the day, Canada claimed fifth place with a 68-53 win over the United States and Spain beat France 43-34 in the game for seventh place.

In men’s placement matches, Argentina beat Turkey 77-68 for seventh place, Japan beat The Netherlands 55-54 for ninth place, and Italy beat Canada 70-66 for 11^th place.

The tournament in the German city concludes tomorrow.