Old rivals clash for Euro gold

The gold medal games of the 2017 Tenerife European Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Spain will feature classic rivalries, as Germany and the Netherlands will face off for the women’s title, while Great Britain and Turkey will battle for the men’s prize.

The teams will clash on Saturday (30 June) in Spain. Live stream will be available at the event website on a pay-per-view basis.

Women’s semi-finals

The Dutch women – European silver medallists and Rio 2016 bronze medallists – looked to bounce back from their loss to Germany in their last pool game. They took on a Great Britain team on Wednesday (28 June) who were wanting to better their bronze medals from the past five European Championships.

Great Britain came out firing and following on from an early lead, led by six at the half-time break. But a rejuvenated Dutch team went on a 12-0 run in the second half and since then never relinquished their lead, winning 59-42.

In the other women’s semifinal, reigning European champion and Paralympic silver medallists Germany secured their place in the final with a 46-33 win over France. Despite a slow start, the Germans had a strong third quarter in which they found themselves a 14-point cushion which France could not recover from.

France will meet Great Britain in the bronze medal game.

Men’s semi-finals

Defending champions' Great Britain’s outside shooting was too much for the Netherlands, winning 72-55 to qualify for their fourth consecutive final at a European Championships.

The German men continued their momentum from their quarter-final victory against Rio 2016 silver medallists Spain, and came out strong against Turkey on a thrilling semi-final game. But despite leading 15-11 at the end of the first quarter, Germany could not defend the sharp shooting from Turkey’s Ozgur Gurbulak, who helped cut Germany’s lead to 31-29 by the half. The lead was exchanged a number of times in the second half, and with one and a half minutes to go in the game, Germany led 64-63. Their failure to score in the remainder of the game gave Turkey the 68-64 win.

Turkey will face the very team that crushed their hopes of a first Paralympic wheelchair basketball medal in a thrilling overtime-bronze medal game from Rio 2016.

Germany will take on the Netherlands for bronze.

Complete results from 2017 Tenerife can be found at the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation’s (IWBF) Europe website.