Wheelchair basketball ace James MacSorley hoping to add even more medals to his collection as he represents Great Britain at Wheelchair Basketball World Championships

Five years later and MacSorley is back in the GB squad setting his sights on another gold medal as the team get ready to defend their crown in Dubai when the tournament kicks off on 9th June.

“It is mad the amount of stuff that I have been through since that World Championships in 2018, I have two weird health scares, I have had two big operations, I have been to a Paralympics, and I have got married,” reflected the Belfast native.

“I think I have grown up a bit since the last one, this one is a year later that it was meant to be.

“It is pretty crazy thinking back to 2018 I was only a young fella back then.

“At that time, I was just in the squad, I was just happy to be there, my goal at that point was wasn’t even to make team much less getting on the floor to contribute.

“I had a good year I worked hard and I managed to scrap my way into the team, I was very much one of the last players on the end of the bench and when your there your job is to kinda help out the lads that are actually going to be playing.

GB beat the USA 79-62 in the final last time out.

“It takes a few weeks to set in, at that point you are all over the place and it is kind of hard, I think it is too sudden to sum up what you are feeling right then in that moment.

“You get off the floor and celebrate and then you go home have a couple of weeks off and that is when you kind of realise you have won a wheelchair basketball world championship.”

“No one from Northern Ireland had ever made it into a world championship wheelchair basketball squad, Katie Morrow had been to the Paralympics, and she deserves all the credit in the world for paving the way.

“I think I was able to set the achievement in the context of GB Wheelchair Basketball but also in the context of Northern Irish Wheelchair Basketball and hopefully what that would do for the game back home that’s how I think of it, I’m very aware that I am the only person in this squad that sounds like me is the way I like to describe it.

“That was the big bit for me, it was historical at the time as no one had ever done it and that was the amazing part.”

MacSorley received a hero’s homecoming at Belfast City Airport.

“I was surprised, I knew it was happening because I had been asked about my flight details, I was kind of hoping a couple of people would show up, but I was blown away at the time.

“I think the fact that there were so many people there and people from Disability Sport Northern Ireland (DSNI), people from Knights Basketball Club and every media outlet under the sun that really shocked me because of the exposure that wheelchair basketball was going to get.

“I’m very aware I’m only here because of a handful of opportunities and support afforded to me by DSNI and the Knights so it was really special to have them there and hopefully if one kid or one adult saw it on the TV and thought they would give wheelchair basketball ago I thought I my job was and that was more than I could ever hope for never mind winning anything.

“Just other people getting to try the sport I love and the sport that changed my life I think that was the real footprint of it for me.”

MacSorley added to his medal collection with a bronze at the Tokyo Paralympics.

“I think independently in a vacuum a bronze medal at a Paralympics Games is a massive achievement and is one of the things I’ll remember the rest of my life but also we had a really good chance to go there and win it.

“We had a couple of guys that won’t with the squad for different reasons and that hurt us, I think if we’d had a full squad there, we would have done it but I also made the team as a reserve, so it was bitter sweet in that regard, I think if GB have a full squad they win it but I’m not involved.

“So, it is tough to square away, a bronze was a massive achievement but the final I think was a step to far for us in the end.

“In a different world we could have done it the USA won the whole thing and we beat them in the groups maybe it is the one that got away.”

MacSorley is delighted to make the plane to Dubai.

“It is no secret that I have missed out on a couple of selections recently, I missed the last Europeans and only got into Tokyo as a reserve, GB has some of the best players in the world in every position and particularly some of the spots I’d be going for we have some really special guys.

“I count myself just lucky to be involved on the court and off it, we have a real special group and some of my best friends, some guys I grew up playing with and that I have known for over a decade at this point.

“One of my teammates, my wife and I are godparents to his son so it is deeper than basketball at this point and I count myself very lucky to be part of this group.”

The defending champions know if they perform to the best of their ability another gold medal is there for the taking.

“People are talking about a target on our backs and that maybe true, but it just means we are the gold standard and people will know they will have to go through us if they want to win something.

“We don’t really mind the job is the same either way, you go out there and try to do things the right way and the results take care of themselves.

“There is some unbelievable talent in the other teams, there is plenty of challengers and plenty of other teams that think they can do it as well, but I have full belief we can get it done.

“There is no reason why this group can’t win a gold medal, look at the talent we have got from top to bottom and even some of the guys that didn’t make the squad, I don’t think on our day anyone can beat us.”