Brilliant Batt helps Australia thump hosts, de Rozario finishes gallant 4th

Four-time NSWIS Paralympian Ryley Batt (pictured at the 2014 NSWIS Awards) has furthered his claim as the world’s best wheelchair rugby player after leading Australia to a 72-45 thumping of host nation Brazil at the Carioca Arena in Rio.

Batt scored 34 of Australia’s points in a comprehensive preliminary game victory that saw fellow NSWIS athletes Cameron Carr (one goal) and Andrew Edmondson (two) also get amongst the scorers.

Brazil put up a strong fight in the opening period, going to the first break trailing by just one – 16-15 – and they tied things up early in the second stanza before but Batt and Australia took con troll and pushed their advantage out to 11 at the main break, 36-25.

In the third the Brazilians could only manage ten goals, while Australia scored 20, an incredible 15 to Batt who was ably assisted in the period by Edmondson who grabbed one of his two goals for the game.

The final quarter saw Batt rested but Edmondson and Carr both played significant time in a period Australia dominated 16-10.

Australia will next play Canada in another preliminary game on Saturday morning AEST.

At the athletics track, NSWIS’s Madison de Rozario finished fourth in the women’s T54 5000m final in a thrilling four-way sprint for gold.

The Australian clocked 11:54.46 to finish a hair behind American trio Tatyana McFadden (11:54.07), Chelsea McClammer (11:54.33) and Amanda McGrory (11:54.34).

There was then heartbreak for de Rozario when the Australian women’s 4x400m T53/54 wheelchair racers team that she was part of with fellow NSWIS athletes Angie Ballard, Christie Dawes and Victorian Jemima Moore, finished third in the final behind the dominant Chinese team – who broke the world record by eight seconds – only to be disqualified after the event.