What to watch: Day 2

China and USA will battle it out in sitting volleyball, Canada and Great Britain meet in wheelchair basketball and the women’s 200m individual medley S5 will feature. 31 Aug 2012
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Beijing 2008

USA took silver at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, with only host nation China finishing ahead of them.

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The main event of the day will be China against USA in women’s sitting volleyball at the ExCeL, which will be a rematch of the gold-medal game from Beijing 2008.

Morning: Head on out to Riverbank Arena as football 5-a-side action begins when Brazil, the only team to have ever won the Paralympic title, opens up their schedule against France, the defending European champions.

Also, the athletics action begins at the Olympic Stadium and rowing commences at Eton Dorney.

Afternoon: The main event of the day will be China against USA in women’s sitting volleyball at the ExCeL, which will be a rematch of the gold-medal game from Beijing 2008. Americans Kendra Lancaster, Katie Holloway and Kari Miller hope to topple the reigning Paralympic champions who beat them four years ago.

At the same time at the ExCeL, Venezuelan judoka Naomi Soazo will aim to repeat her top finish in the -63kg division on the mat. The visually impaired 20-year-old is the only athlete from her country to have ever won Paralympic gold. In her Paralympic Games debut at Beijing 2008, Soazo took just three seconds to defeat Spain’s Marta Arce in the finals. That was after she defeated China’s Zhou Qian in less than a minute in her first match and made quick work of Sweden’s Elvira Kivi later in the semi-finals.

Evening: Leading a jam-packed night will be a men’s wheelchair basketball matchup between host nation Great Britain and unstoppable Canadian team led by the world’s best player, Pat Anderson. Head to North Greenwich Arena early to get your seat for this one or plop yourself on the couch to catch the 21:15 tip-off.

Over in Olympic Park, the men’s 5,000m T54 wheelchair racing heats will feature rivals Kurt Fearnley of Australia, Marcel Hug of Switzerland and David Weir of Great Britain. Germany’s Heinrich Popow, meanwhile, will try for the title in the men’s long jump F42/44.

In the pool, Brazil’s Andre Brasil will be expected to lead the pack in the 50m freestyle S10, Australia’s Matt Cowdrey will be favoured in the 100m backstroke S9 and France’s David Smetanine will try for gold in the 50m freestyle S4.

Potentially the biggest race of the night at the Aquatics Centre could be Spain’s Teresa Perales against Norway’s Sarah Louise Rung in the 200m individual medley SM5.

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