Invictus Basketball Team Prepare To Head Down Under

Preparations across all sports are gearing up as athletes make sure their on top form for the Invictus Games in Sydney this October. 

This weekend, the seven wheelchair basketball players who will represent Team UK in Australia have been taking part in a training camp at the National Sports Centre in Lilleshall, near Shrewsbury. 

Five of the team will be competing at Invictus for the first time. Among them is basketball team captain Rich Pullen, an ex Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Craftsman, who was injured in a road traffic accident in 1989.

He said: "I found wheelchair basketball 20-something years ago purely through luck.

"I got into a chair, fell straight out the back of it and loved it and I've been sat in this thing ever since."

Mr Pullen praised the Invictus team for their "get up and go attitude". 

A total of 72 wounded, injured and sick veterans and service personnel will head to Australia this October to compete across a variety of disciplines.

In numbers, it’s the smallest team the UK delegation has sent to the Invictus Games even though more hopefuls than ever before – 451 – applied to be part of the team.

The rigorous selection process for Team UK was based on the benefit the Invictus Games will give an individual as part of their recovery, combined with performance and commitment to training.