Battling Chile edged out by Uruguay in wheelchair basketball

Chile’s wheelchair basketball team gave it their all in their debut in the Juegos Parasuramericanos, but couldn’t conjure up a great escape against Uruguay.

Santiago – Although the opening ceremony doesn´t take place until this evening, the basketball competition got underway yesterday at the Polideportivo of the Estadio Nacional with three matches.

Chile faced Uruguay in the final encounter and nerves got the better of them in the opening part of the match. The hosts fell 20 points behind and had to dig deep to fight their way back into the game.

They staged a great recovery and it looked as though they could even earn victory, but Uruguay just held on to triumph 60-56.

Brazil and Colombia had the honour of getting proceedings underway and the match lived up to expectations. In a real thriller, it was Brazil who came out on top 71-70.

The second match on court didn´t have the same drama. Argentina turned on the style to thrash Venezuela 61-25.

Meanwhile, Chilean president Michelle Bachelet and sports minister Natalia Riffo are due to attend the opening ceremony of the first-ever Juegos Parasuramericanos this evening.

The launch takes place at the Pista Atlética Mario Recordón at the Estadio Nacional at 9pm and will feature the eight countries in competition – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Around 600 sportsmen and women are due to take part in the Games. Chile´s team of 103 will be captained by world record-holding weightlifter Juan Carlos Garrido.

A crowd of 4,500 is expected and the tickets have already been snapped up.

Tags: Juan Carlos Garrido, Juegos Parasuramericanos, wheelchair basketball