The last gold medal of the Invictus Games Sydney 2018 will be decided between the USA and Netherlands in the final of the wheelchair basketball at the Quaycentre at Sydney Olympic Park.
After eight days of competition in 13 sports by 500 competitors from 18 countries, one of these countries will be on top of the podium for the final time at these Games.
The losers in Saturday afternoon’s final will earn the silver medal.
The bronze medal match will be fought out between the UK and New Zealand.
The USA were in commanding form in the first semifinal Saturday morning with a 41-33 win over the UK.
The UK team came home strongly scoring 20 points to 15 in the second half. But the hard word had been done in the opening stanza when the USA took a 13-point halftime lead 26-13.
The teams are playing two 15-minute halves in the semifinals and medal matches – bumped up from 12-minutes in all preliminary round games.
The second semifinal had the hallmarks of being a blow-out score when the Dutch raced to a 20-8 half-time lead over the Kiwis.
But both sides tightened up their attack substantially in the second half, with only 10 points scored between them for a 26-12 fulltime score.
Margie McDonald
Invictus Games Sydney 2018