Wheelchair basketball teams battle for national championships

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Darwin Salties played the Wollongong Roller Hawks in the Wheelchair Basketball Australia men's semi-finals last night. It’s been a hard slog to get there, playing three days a week, training for another three, and building strength in the gym.

Transcript

00:00Some last minute training in Darwin before another shot at the gold medal at this weekend's

00:08WBA finals in Sydney.

00:12The Salty's winning every game this year bar one, losing only to the Hawks early in

00:17the season.

00:18We went 17-1.

00:20The first weekend we won our first game on the Friday night, lost on the Saturday night

00:25by 8 and then we won our next 16.

00:27We can only worry about it one game at a time because it's finals now so our 17-1 record

00:33doesn't mean anything.

00:34It's just to get us in the top two.

00:35We've just got to take care of what's within our control and hopefully the results can take

00:38care of itself from there.

00:39They've won the last two national championships and now hoping for a third.

00:45And it's not only about breaking down social barriers for people with disability.

00:50It's an awesome sport to watch.

00:51I think, you know, I'm pretty biased when it comes to saying that but I remember watching

00:55it for the first time live and I fell in love with it.

00:57The Salty's credit their success to a great team culture and some international experience.

01:04We've got four or five guys that play overseas.

01:06Our import this year plays with me in Spain usually so it's good to get that talent.

01:10When you play overseas and you come back to Australia and you're basically playing 12

01:14sports of the year, it's pretty exhausting but exciting too because they just love getting

01:19around the community and the community loves all these guys so we're grateful for it.

01:23The Darwin Salty's have a shot at back-to-back championships this weekend.

01:26It's been an impressive season for the top end talent and they're hoping all that hard work

01:31will pay off.

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