Wolverhampton wheelchair rugby star strikes gold as he targets Rio call

Ash, from Wolverhampton, and his side beat the top two teams in the world on their way to winning the competition in Rio.

Team GB beat Canada, ranked world No.1, twice as well as defeating and narrowly losing to Australia. Brazil, who are well down the rankings, made up the final country for the four-team test tournament.

Ash, aged 43, said: "We flew out to Rio to test out the facilities, making a few final plans before the main Paralympic games.

"We played against Canada, Australia and Brazil and played each team twice.

"Beating Canada twice and Australia once, losing the second game narrowly, has given us a nice little confidence booster.

"Our target going into the event was to win about three and maybe nick a win against Canada or Australia, so to lose just one and come away with the gold was a great achievement.

"Everyone is going to strengthen before the games but beating Australia was particularly nice because we've struggled against them in recent years."

The final Olympic squad will be whittled down from 15 to 12 following the Japan Para Wheelchair Rugby Championships, which run from May 14-28.

Team GB will also face Sweden and Canada in friendlies during the next couple of weeks.

Ash, who lives with his partner, Ruth, and two children Daniel, 17, and Tayla, seven, in Fallings Park first heard about the sport while recovering from a road traffic accident that left him paralysed from the chest down.

The former Royal Marine had only passed out from the army one month before the crash, which changed his life forever.

Growing up he played football for Wolves, Albion and Arsenal, between the ages of 13 to 16, and also trained at Lilleshall with the England Schoolboys.

Sport has always played a big part of his life and he encourages more people to get involved.

He said: "It might be easy for me to say coming from a sporting background but playing wheelchair rugby has been so important to me.

"It gets you back into that team environment and you also learn about training and nutrition.

"I've travelled the world and I think the barriers have been broken where we're seen as athletes with disabilities rather than someone who is disabled and plays sport.

"It's professional now and all the para-athletes train and look like athletes."

Wheelchair rugby was invented in Canada during the 1970s for injured people who could not play wheelchair basketball.

Games see goals scored rather than tries and there are usually between 110 and 120 per match, which are played over four eight-minute quarters on a basketball court.

Four players are on the court at one time, but the squads are 12 strong with rolling subs and, although there are no conversions, sin-bins still exist.

"It can get very tactical and strategic," said Ash, who has represented Team GB at every Paralympics since Atlanta in 1996.

"It was a demonstration sport in Atlanta in 1996 and then a full blown medal event from Sydney onwards.

"Team GB finished fourth in Atlanta, sixth in Sydney, fourth in Athens and Beijing, and fifth in London, so we've been just off the medals all those years."

Ash is classed as a tetraplegia following the accident in 1990, which left him wheelchair bound, meaning he has full use of his arms and good use of his hands.

"I was recruited in wheelchair rugby while carrying out rehabilitation in Oswestry Hospital by one of the coaches," said Ash.

"He asked me to come along to one of the training sessions to give it ago and I've loved it ever since.

"I was really into football growing up and, to be honest, rugby had never appealed to me.

"When I was paralysed from the chest down the first thing that popped into my head was how do you play rugby in a wheelchair?

"It's a real contact sport and although you cannot physically man-handle opponents it's quite brutal. You spend quite a lot of time on the ground but it helps get rid of all that pent up aggression."