Turkey’s U23 men’s team edged past African champions Morocco in overtime of the final at the Fazza International Wheelchair Basketball Championships to win gold.
The championships, celebrating its 10th anniversary, was hosted by the Dubai Club for People of Determination, the General Authority for Sports and the Dubai Sports Council and had eight nations compete.
The group stages, saw Japan (U23), Thailand, South Africa and Morocco play each other in group A, whilst host country UAE took on Chinese Taipei, Turkey (U23) and South Korea in group B.
Asian teams, Thailand and South Korea, topped their respective groups to make the semi-finals, both going through undefeated, along with Morocco and Turkey who finished as runner-ups.
The semi-finals saw South Korea match up against Morocco, and Thailand against the young Turkish team. In the first semi-final, it was Turkey who proved too strong for Thailand, to make their way to the final with a 64-51 win. African Champions Morocco caused an upset in the second semi-final overturning South Korea, 53-45.
Morocco and Turkey provided an epic final game for the jubilant crowd, and a three-point buzzer beater at the end of the fourth quarter by Morocco’s Maataoui Reda, forced the game into overtime 63-63, but it was the young Turkish team who outlasted the Moroccans in the end to win the gold, 69-65.
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The bronze medal game was a low scoring affair, which saw South Korea defeat Asian rivals Thailand, 49-41, to take third place.
In the classification games for 5th-8th place, Japan comfortably defeated UAE, 63-33, to set up a battle for fifth place against South Africa, who overcame tough competition Chinese Taipei by just six points, 59-53. South Africa winning momentum continued to the next game and they overturned Japan to finish fifth, whilst UAE got their first win of the tournament over Chinese Taipei, 47-41 to finish seventh.
More information and all results from the Championships
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