Paralympics: Wheelblacks through to final

12.00pm

The New Zealand wheelchair rugby players will play Canada for the Paralympics gold medal after dispatching Great Britain 39-35 in their semifinal in Athens.

The gold medal match will be played at 7pm on Sunday in Athens (4.00am NZT Monday).

The Wheel Blacks were tied at 11-11 at the end of the first quarter in Friday's game then got the decisive break in the second with a succession of turnovers to lead 24-20 at halftime.

Gerry Tinker top scored with 16 ahead of Dan Buckingham with 11 and Tim Johnson 9.

Coach Grant Sharman said the victory over Great Britain was the culmination of work in their warmup matches to improve individual performances and the total team effort.

"Great Britain have put together a tremendous campaign and we had to pull every trick out of the book to get through. With each game you just have to lift to a new level and we know we are going to have to do that to beat Canada.

New Zealand team member Curtis Palmer was not surprised Canada had beaten the USA 24-20 in a low-scoring match to also progress to the final.

"The Canadians play with a lot of control and I saw some vulnerabilities in the American side that I knew the Canadians would exploit."

- NZPA