Northern Ireland’s Nathan McCabe has been named as one the British Wheelchair Basketball players selected to compete in the upcoming Kitakyushu Champions Cup.

The Kitakyushu Champions Cup is an U30s competition hosted in Japan. This will be the 20^th edition of this competition, which is aimed to provide high-level competition for athletes aspiring to represent their country on the elite stage. GB will compete against Japan and Korea.

The named GB U30s team highlights the quality and depth across the pathway, with three quarters of the squad under the age of 22. This competition is an exciting and important development opportunity for players who have potential to play for the GB Men’s senior team.

Joey Johnson will lead the team as Head Coach, with Mark Stevenson providing key support as Assistant Coach. Joey Johnson is one half of the current GB Men coaching team alongside Bill Johnson, having coached the team to Gold at the 2023 European Championships and Silver at the 2022 IWBF World Championships (held in 2023). Mark Stevenson coached Scottish Wizards to claim the Junior League trophy last season and has gained valuable experience from his time developing the Scotland national teams.

The players representing GB U30 at the Kitakyushu Champions Cup 2023 are:

Vest # – Full Name – Classification

5 – Abderrahim Taghrest – 1.0

6 – Finley Tonner – 3.0

7 – Daniel McLaughlin – 1.5

9 – Tyler Baines – 3.5

10 – James Hazell – 2.0

11 – Jack Long – 3.5

13 – Alex Wilson – 3.0

14 – Nathan McCabe – 2.5

15 – Finlay Erskine – 4.0

16 – Elliot Hardman – 3.5

17 – Tom Harvey – 3.0

19 – Jack Perry – 4.5

Games get started on Friday 10^th November through to Sunday 12^th November. All games will be streamed via the event’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9MYVB7vaYbpyNOE08tlWmA

Photo credit Christopher Cox Photography