The draw was made here tonight near Stoke Mandeville, the birthplace of the Paralympics when London last hosted the Olympics in 1948, following a celebratory dinner at which members of the British team and other figures from wheelchair basketball were present.

In Pool A, Australia and the US will be joined by Italy, Spain, Turkey and South Africa.

Britain, who claimed bronze in 2008, were given the opportunity to select their pool and opted to be drawn with Japan, Poland, Colombia, Germany and Canada, who lost the final at Beijing 2008 to the Australians.

The women's draw sees America, the 2008 champions, face Germany, whom they beat four years' ago in the final, as well as China, France and Mexico or South Africa - who have yet to play off - in Pool B.

Britain opted to be drawn alongside 2008 bronze medallists Australia, Canada, Netherlands and Brazil.

The draw was conducted by GB stars Simon Munn, who is aiming to compete in his sixth successive Paralympics, and Amy Conroy.

The top four in each pool will progress to the quarter finals.

Britain's men's coach Murray Treseder was under no illusions as to the difficulty of the draw, and insists that it will be more than just Canada and Germany his team must worry about.

"It's very tough – there are 11 very good teams," he told insideworldparasport.

"Our five opponents are all very very good teams.

"Don't underestimate Spain, Turkey we haven't beaten for a very long time and Italy are a very good side.

"[We will] just worry about the first game and go from there."


Britain, who last year won the European Championships in Israel, are going into the tournament confident they can build on that success, according to one of the stars of the team, Terry Bywater.

"If we want to win gold we will have to beat Australia," he told insideworldparasport.

"At the end of the day we're European champions – it's a huge confidence booster for the team.

"If we go out there and play that way against the likes of Canada, Australia and the USA, who knows?"

As for the women, ranked six in the world, their coach Garry Peel told insideworldparasport that his team were drawn in the right pool.

"We're confident - I don't think there's an easy game out there," he said.

"Whichever pool we went into was never going to be easy.

"We're very confident about having Australia and Canada as the main two teams in our pool.

"We are confident we are in the right pool.

"It wouldn't have bothered me if it was Germany - it was the US we tried to avoid we just can't beat them at the moment.

"But you never know in the Paralympics – anything could happen."

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