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Wheelchair Basketball World Championships: Defending champions Great Britain into last four in Dubai

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Great Britain’s Gregg Warburton won Paralympic bronze medals in Rio and Tokyo

Defending champions Great Britain eased into the semi-finals of the Wheelchair Basketball World Championships with a 72-44 win over Italy in Dubai.

They will face Iran for the second time in the tournament in the last four on Sunday.

GB defeated the Iranians 90-59 in their opening pool game last Saturday.

However, the GB women, silver medallists at the last Worlds in 2018, missed out on a place in the quarter-finals after losing 62-53 to Australia.

They needed a win against the Gliders in their final pool game having beaten Spain and Brazil, but losing to China and Canada.

But Australia’s big inside players Amber Merritt and Georgia Munro-Cook controlled matters and they pulled clear in the final two-and-a-half minutes to win.

Helen Freeman top-scored on 20 points for GB who will now go into the play-offs for 9th-12th and refocus on August’s European Championships in the Netherlands.

The GB men have looked impressive so far in the tournament, which was due to be held in November 2022 but was delayed because of the Fifa World Cup.

The Tokyo Paralympic bronze medallists defeated Iran, Iraq and Paralympic champions USA in their pool games, before a comfortable 78-51 win over Korea in the last 16 on Thursday.

They made a typically strong start against the Italians, with Gregg Warburton and Lee Manning helping them to a 18-8 lead by the end of the first quarter and they maintained the pressure to lead 35-16 by the break.

They continued to exert their dominance with coaches Bill and Joey Johnson able to rotate their squad ahead of the rematch against Iran, who they beat in the 2018 semi-final but who have been improving as this tournament has gone on.

Warburton, who was voted Most Valuable Player at the 2018 Worlds, finished on 32 points with Manning on 12 points and 16 rebounds.

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