TEHRAN - The national Iranian men’s wheelchair basketball team has put a highly commendable end to its campaign at the 2022 International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) World Championships and ranked third at the end of the high-status international event.
On Tuesday, the final day of the tournament at Dubai World Trade Centre, the Iranian team defeated the Dutch squad 72-54 in the third-place play-off.
The national wheelchair basketball team lost to the British side 59-90 in its opening match on June 10, before being beaten 74-82 by the U.S. outfit in the second fixture.
The physically-challenged athletes routed their Iraqi and French counterparts 83-41 and 89-79 respectively in the next ties on Wednesday and Thursday.
The Iranian sportsmen took on Germany in the next match on June 16, and overcame the European team 70-68 to advance to the semi-finals and win the ticket for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, as the contests served as an Olympic qualification event.
The team slumped to the British squad 64-44 in its semi-final encounter on Sunday and had to face the Netherlands in the bronze medal game.
The 2022 IWBF Wheelchair Basketball World Championships took place in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, between June 9 and 20, 2023.
Originally scheduled to be held in November 2022, it was postponed to June 2023 in order not to clash with the 2022 FIFA World Cup being held in Qatar, but the name of the event was not changed.