RAF veteran sets sights on second wheelchair rugby gold at the Paralympic Games

Royal Air Force veteran and wheelchair rugby star Stu Robinson has set his sights on gold at the Paralympic Games once again as he prepares to help Great Britain's wheelchair rugby team defend their title in Paris.

Robinson, who lost his left leg after his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device (IED) while on routine patrol in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, in 2013, was part of the GB squad that won the gold medal in Tokyo.

Now with a firm target on their backs, Robinson and his teammates are set to take on the challenges of facing the world number ones, Australia, as well as the host nation, France, where they hope to taste Paralympic glory once again.

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"Going in as Paralympic champions has its own pressure," he said.

"But we kind of enjoy having that target on our back and everyone wants to beat us and that's probably why we're playing the world number ones in the first game. And to have France on a Saturday evening in Paris is going to be amazing."

As with most athletes, Robinson has had to face the challenges of a much shorter Paralympic cycle due to the delayed games in Tokyo because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But he remains optimistic about the British team's chances to retain their Paralympic title, explaining that the team remains "in a good place" going into the games.

He said: "I think also it's been a slightly congested schedule for the last three years because I've been trying to fit a four-year Paralympic cycle into three.

"We're coming off the back of, unfortunately, two European championship silver medals where we lost to France in both games so, obviously, there's a bit of a rivalry going on at the moment.

"But I think we are in a good place, we're playing well. We've just come off the back of a tournament in Canada where we finished third, we managed to beat France, we've beat Canada and we've beaten the USA.

"So we've beaten the top teams in the world, it's just those games that we were losing by only about the occasional one or two goals, so little tiny errors to tighten up on but they're going to give us the greater margins of victory when we do come away with it in Paris."

Great Britain will take on Australia, Denmark and France in their group stages where they hope to progress on to the semi-finals and the finals with eight nations fighting for gold.

The wheelchair rugby tournament takes place from 29 August to 2 September.