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COWLING AIMING TO COMPLETE THE MEDAL SET

Writer's picture: Matthew RhodesMatthew Rhodes

The Wheelchair Rugby World Championships in Denmark begins in October and Matlock's Ryan Cowling is once again looking to add to his medal collection. It's been a very busy year for the reigning Paralympic champion and multiple European gold medalist and Cowling is looking to end 2022 on a high. After an agonising 44-43 defeat to France in this year's European Championships final in March, Great Britain will be looking to win a historic first ever World Championships medal in just over two weeks time. Due to a backlog of big events created by the Covid pandemic, 2022 has been an important year for the sport and Cowling has been involved in a number of competitions for Great Britain: "So we lost in the European Championships final in March. We weren't pleased at all with that to be perfectly honest. It's given us a kick up the backside. It's shown that we can't take anything for granted in this sport. We went into the European Championships thinking we've got a really good chance of winning it. But it didn't turn out that way. After that, we competed in a tri-nations tournament with The United States and Canada. We finished second in that, so that wasn't a bad competition for us. We learnt some new things there which will prepare us well for the World Championships. I was also in the Great Britain side that competed at the World Games where wheelchair rugby was the only disability sport represented this time around. All of the major nations competed in that and we won the gold medal there which was great. We've just had the Quad Nations tournament - that had some ups and downs. Some good performances and some bad performances. We narrowly lost to Canada in the final of the Quad Nations in a game that went into double overtime. So it's been a really busy year and now I'm really looking forward to the World Championships in Denmark." This year's World Championships will see 12 nations competing. The teams will be split into two pools of six and the top four nations at the end of both groups will qualify for the quarter-finals. Great Britain are in Pool A alongside The United States, France, New Zealand, Germany and Switzerland. Cowling is pleased with the outcome: "If I'm honest, I think we've probably got the better of the pools. The United States are obviously always strong. We beat France in the Quad Nations recently, so I guess we have a slight psychological advantage there. We beat New Zealand convincingly in Tokyo at the Paralympics. We beat Germany convincingly at the Quad Nations and we also comfortably beat Switzerland the last time we played them. France and the USA are certainly our strongest opposition in our pool. The other pool has got Japan, Australia, Canada and Denmark in there. They are four cracking teams. That will be a really hard pool. I'm happy with the group we're in. I'm optimistic about our chances. We have a really good opportunity to get through to the latter stages of this tournament and hopefully win a medal - which is something Great Britain have never done at the World Championships."








The fact that this is the only major event in the sport where Great Britain have never medalled before is clearly the biggest source of motivation going into Denmark. This isn't just for the team as a whole but for Cowling's own career personally: "It gives us motivation to give as much as we possibly can to do something special. You can never take for granted any of the teams that are in this competition. These are the top 12 nations in the world in this sport. I think four of these nations have a really good chance of winning a gold medal in Denmark. We know we've got to be at our very best and the team is extremely motivated to be the first British wheelchair rugby team to win a medal at the World Championships. I would love to have a complete set of medals. A World Championships medal is the only one missing for me." The sport continues to grow globally year by year and it's hoped that this is reflected in the coverage and in the crowds at Denmark for the event. Cowling has his fingers crossed that this can be the biggest World Championships yet: "I certainly hope so. The last World Championships I attended in 2018 in Australia was extremely well attended. The crowd was fantastic when Denmark previously hosted a European Championships. I guess it's difficult to say right now, but I really do hope so." The World Championships starts on the tenth of October and the final will take place six days later.

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