A CHEPSTOW man has spoken of his pride after being selected as part of the Great Britain Men’s wheelchair basketball team for the Rio 2016 Paralympics.

Phil Pratt, 22, went to Chepstow Comprehensive School and has been playing wheelchair basketball for 11 years. Now, he has been selected as part of the team of 12 for his first Paralympic Games.

Phil made his senior debut for Great Britain in the summer of 2014 at the Men’s World Championships in South Korea. He currently plays for the Sheffield Steelers, but has recently signed to play for a professional team in Sardinia, Italy, next year.

Phil said: “I’m super excited and honoured to be able to represent my country at the highest level.

“I’ve spent half my life training non-stop and all of the sacrifices have all been worth it.”

“The next few months are going to be full on with tournaments and training to get the best preparation as possible and to get the team all firing so when it comes to the games, we’re all ready to go.

“We’ll be based in Worcester for most of our training but we have the continental clash in Leicester next week, along with tournaments in America and potentially in Spain.

“I’ve got to thank Chepstow School for letting me play basketball in PE lessons, and my teacher Nicola Williams coming outside whenever the boys had rugby to let me play.”

The Rio 2016 Paralympics will take place between 7th and 18th September.