BRITAIN’S wheelchair rugby squad do not want to copy Greece at Euro 2004 – win one big event and then fade into obscurity.
A year today the Paris 2024 Paralympics will open to great fanfare and celebration.
Plenty of interest during the 12-day Games will focus on the sport nicknamed Murder Ball, especially as the Brits crashed and smashed their way to historic gold three years ago in Tokyo.
The squad shocked favourites United States 54-49 to win a first title in a Paralympic team sport in 63 years of competition.
But vice-captain Stuart Robinson – one of SunSport’s SEINE-sational Seven to watch next summer – does not want that Japanese conquest to be a one-off ahead of next summer's Games.
Robinson said: “Straight after Tokyo, we were aware that all the eyes were going to be on us.
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“The pressure has been on ever since we left that country. But I like to think that we can thrive on that.
“From a personal perspective, I don’t want us to be known as a flash-in-the-pan.
“As a reference point, I don’t want it to be like Greece from the European Championships in 2004.
“You know, one amazing tournament and that was that for them.
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“I want us to play well and to try to push on. It was quite easy for us to sit back and think we are now Paralympic champions.
“It should be a case of: ‘What else can we achieve?’ Let’s continue winning, let’s try win the next world championships, let’s try to win the Europeans.
“Ultimately, let’s try and win the next Paralympics Games and make it two from two.”
Only four of the 12 gold medal-winning stars from Tokyo have retired from international sport so continuity of personnel is important.
Robinson, a father of two from Morecambe, had both his legs amputated after he was involved in an explosion while serving in the Royal Air Force in Afghanistan a decade ago.
He sustained 36 separate injuries, including rib, sternum, collarbone and spinal fractures and spent two months in hospital, which included six weeks in an induced coma.
The 41-year-old said: “Winning that medal in 2021 did bring a tear or two to my eye. It’s unbelievable what we have achieved. We had gone out there and smashed it and proved the doubters wrong.”
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