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	TX: 20.09.04 -听PARALYMPICS REPORT 2 PRESENTER: JOHN WAITE & PETER WHITE

	THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT.听 BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 麻豆约拍 CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. WAITE After the first weekend of competition at the Paralympics in Athens British athletes have experienced the inevitable highs and lows of international sport. Everything from the delight of the visually impaired cyclist who won Great Britain's first gold of the games, to the despair of our three times judo gold medallist who crashed out in the first round. 听 Well we've been following two of our medal contenders since the spring. You'll remember the wheelchair rugby squad and Emma Brown, who is world champion at her weight, in powerlifting - the disability equivalent of weightlifting. Peter White caught up with Emma in the Paralympic village to hear about her preparations for Athens. 听 BROWN Prior to the games I've been training six days a week, twice a day - that's a combination of weights and cardio because I've come down a bodyweight class and I've lost 12 kilos in order to compete, which is a great feat for me because I'm more like a see food eat it girl, than a dieter. 听 ATHENS COMMENTARY 听 We were the 75th team to go into the Olympic stadium for the opening ceremony, so we spent a lot of the time queuing outside. But once we entered the stadium we entered to rapturous applause, it was a phenomenal feeling, I had an adrenaline rush which was really - you know it was cool. And so I think the opening and closing ceremony are an integral part of the games and for the enjoyment of the whole experience because it's not just about the competing, it's about enjoying the whole aspect of the games. 听 [Indistinct words] I've only been training really I haven't been to any events, I've just had my sights set on these games and hopefully that'll pay off when I may come home with a medal. 听 ATHENS COMMENTARY 听 WHITE For the wheelchair rugby team though the action has already well and truly begun. Yesterday they clashed with Belgium, a team they beat by one point last year to clinch the European championship. This will be a good indicator of their form. And for Ross Morrison, the player we featured last spring, the game could not have begun more perfectly. 听 But the euphoria was short-lived, as the tension in the game mounted, within a few moments Ross had been sin binned. 听 MORRISON It was a spin, I hit the guy behind the rear axle which caused the chair to spin and they judged it to be unsafe, which is a matter of opinion. 听 WHITE So it was a foul basically, it was judged a foul? 听 MORRISON Judged to be a foul. 听 WHITE Like rugby the wheelchair version is rough and tough - the players use their chairs like chariots, as attackers try to burst through defenders repel them as if with a battering ram. And it's the part of the game one of Great Britain's leading scorers Troy Collins relishes most. Injured when playing rugby union with a South African forces team Troy came to England after his accident discovered and fell in love with the wheelchair version of the game. 听 COLLINS It's just such an exciting game, with a lot of aggression, a lot of impact and high crashing chairs basically, which is why we love it, I mean a few of us are ex-rugby players and this is the closest thing we get to rugby union is wheelchair rugby. 听 I've been playing the game for like about nine years now and in the nine years I've been playing I've never known one person to have a real serious injury, so it just shows you how protected we are in these chairs, even when we do get spun out. 听 WHITE Well he may not have been injured but it's something of a miracle how the purpose-built chairs stand up to the punishment they get. As the game ebbs and flows Ross Morrison is released from the sin bin only to meet with another disaster. My assistant Stephen Williams commentating to me at the time was deeply impressed by what happened next. 听 WILLIAMS They've just taken time out for Ross, he's just got a puncture, the wheel just exploded and the air rushed out. And it's like a Formula 1 pit stop - two people rush on, one person lifts the chair, the wheels snap out quite quickly and the other person puts the wheel straight back in. They've got it honed down to a fine art, just like the Ferrari team. 听 WHITE It took about 20 seconds didn't it. 听 WILLIAMS Yeah. 听 WHITE There are other key differences between wheelchair and mainstream rugby - you are allowed to pass the ball forward, the game is played with a volleyball and tactical substitutions take place to ensure that both sides have players of equal levels of disability on the court at any one time. Where it doesn't differ is in the intensity of professional dedication that players like Ross Morrison have brought to their preparations. 听 MORRISON Get up at 4.30, money push, video technical meetings, 7.00 a.m. in the pool and we've court time and fitness morning and afternoon, weights - we do a session at evening. And we go to sleep and wake up and do it all again. So it really is a full-time professional sport and job. 听 WHITE And this is what it was all for - in the early stages of the game the Belgians maintained a narrow lead but Great Britain's fitness began to tell and by the time of the final countdown they'd edged, then pulled ahead - running out 27-22 winners. It left top scorer Troy Collins satisfied and confident about the next few days. 听 COLLINS A USA-Great Britain final, possibly New Zealand-Great Britain final but at the end of the day the final outcome's going to be gold for GB. 听 WAITE Well we hope so. That report from Peter White and within the last hour our Great Britain wheelchair rugby team won their match against Canada - 32-30 and good luck to Emma Brown who'll be defending her Paralympic gold medal this Saturday.听 Back to the Transcripts homepage Back to the You and Yours homepage The 麻豆约拍 is not responsible for external websites

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