Titans Galway Wheelchair Basketball player, Stephen Melvin will captain Ireland at the upcoming Wheelchair Basketball European Championships in Samakov, Bulgaria next week.
The Irish Wheelchair Basketball squad is set to travel to Bulgaria this week to compete in Division C of the European Championships. The squad have high hopes of gaining promotion to Division B after narrowly missing out in 2023.
Head coach Con Coughlan has selected his 10-man strong squad to go one step further this year with Melvin granted the honour of leading the team as skipper.
"It’s a great honour to be selected as captain for the Euros," beamed Melvin. "Wheelchair Basketball has played a huge part in my life, and it’s never lost on me how lucky I am to have the opportunities to play for my country and now lead a great team."
In the pool stage, Ireland have been drawn to take on Sweden, Finland, Armenia and Belgium. If Ireland finish within the top two places of Pool B, they will progress to a semi-final berth, where they can potentially face Serbia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary or Denmark.
There is strong opposition throughout the tournament. Each side are ranked within the top 30 of the IWBF European standings, with Ireland the third highest at 21. Although Ireland will be striving for gold, they can still gain promotion by finishing in the top two.
Melvin will lead his Irish side out for the first time next Monday as Ireland’s European Championships campaign begins on Monday, September 8, where they face Sweden at 7am Irish time.
They take on Finland later that day at 4pm. Their clash with Armenia takes place at 9.15am on Tuesday, September 9, with the final fixture of Pool B against Belgium scheduled for 11.30am on Wednesday, September 10.
All games will be broadcast live via IWBF Europe’s YouTube channel.
