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Disability Sport Contents:  Paralympics 2008

13:01 GMT, Thursday, 11 September 2008 14:01 UK

Skelhon wins shooting gold for GB

Shooter Matt Skelhon clinched Great Britain's 22nd gold medal of the Paralympic Games in Beijing by winning the mixed R3 10 metres air rifle prone.

The 23-year-old equalled the world record with a perfect score of 600 in his first six series before adding 104.9 in the 10-shot final to win.

Skelhon said: "I don't know how I did it. I'm satisfied with 704.9 points although I could have done better.

"I put a lot of pressure on myself, but I just tried to calm down and shoot."

GB coach Pasan Kularatne said: "To score 600 out of 600 after just one and a half years of serious training is fantastic."

Britain's boccia team of Nigel Murray, Dan Bentley, David Smith and Zoe Robinson will take on reigning Paralympic champions Portugal in the final after beating China 7-3 in their semi-final. GB's boccia team celebrate

Earlier in the day, GB crushed Norway 11-1 to move into the semi-finals.

Murray, 44, who won individual silver, said: "We had a fantastic game against China. We weren't complacent at all but we just kept playing one end at a time and picked off the points.

"Portugal are a great side and I've never been in a British team that's beaten them but hopefully we can do that on Friday."

Britain's men's wheelchair basketball team rounded off their group games in fine style with a 69-53 victory over Israel.

Simon Munn and Terry Bywater scored 42 of the British points between them as the team. which has already qualified for the quarter-finals, secured a fourth win in five outings.

"It was a pretty even match but in the end our superior fitness showed," said Peter Finbow, who was also a member of the team that won bronze in Athens four years ago.

However, they will have to continue their bid for a medal without coach Murray Treseder who has returned to his home in Australia on medical grounds.

Treseder suffered complications relating to a long-standing injury at the training camp before the Games and has been forced to seek treatment.

He said: "I'm very sad to be leaving the team at this stage of the competition, but we have some very experienced players and they know what they have to do - and it's not me who scores the baskets."

The women's team will play Japan in the knockout stages after losing their final group game 42-50 to Germany.

606: DEBATE
"Which British athletes will win medals on day five?"
BBC Sport's Peter Scrivener

Coach Garry Peel was delighted with the performance despite the defeat. He said: "That was our best performance so far. A narrow defeat to Germany is no disgrace."

Forward Sally Wager added: "We know the Germans are capable of scoring 70-odd points against us so to restrict them to 50 was quite an achievement.

"And we played Japan in some warm up matches before the tournament so we know they are not unbeatable - we're confident we can give them a game."

In archery, Britain is guaranteed at least one medal in the women's compound after top ranked Danielle Brown cruised into the semi-finals with a comprehensive 107-81 victory over China's Li Wang.

Brown will meat team-mate Mel Clarke in the last four after Clarke secured a narrow victory over another Brit Pippa Britton 110-106.

And John Stubbs continued his quest for a medal, defeating America's Eric Bennett 117-114 to break the Paralympic record in the Open category of the men's individual compound.

He will meet Canada's 12 arrow world record holder Kevin Evans on Friday for a place in the semi-final.

In Qingdao Nik Birrell and Alex Rickham won their first SKUD18 race of the sailing regatta to push them up to fourth place in the rankings with five races remaining.

John Robertson's Sonar crew and Helena Lucas in the 2.4mR class failed to make an impression on the leaders, the Sonar boat finishing seventh and both languish in seventh place with five races to go.

The men's five-a-side football team lost 3-1 to Spain in a dramatic game that saw Britain take an early lead before the European champions dominated the second half.

David Clarke celebrated his 38th birthday with his 97th international goal, but it was not enough to prevent a second defeat in three matches.

British powerlifter Jason Irving had a bronze medal snatched away after his final lift was ruled out.

Irving, who broke the European record in the -56kg division with a lift of 177.5kg on his second attempt, raised 180kg on his final effort to earn a bronze, but a protest that the lift had been outside the allowed time limit was upheld by officials.

Meanwhile, two more powerlifters have been banned for two years after failing doping tests.

Mali's Facourou Sissoko and Ukraine's Liudmyla Osmanova tested positive for steroids in out-of-competition tests and have been sent home.

German wheelchair basketball player Ahmet Coskun and Pakistani powerlifter Naveed Ahmed Butt have already been kicked out of the Games for failing drugs tests.



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Schedule - Friday 12 September (22 Aug 08 |  Paralympics )
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