Minnesotans win silver medals in Paralympics wheelchair rugby, judo

TOKYO – Britain defeated the United States 54-49 on Sunday in the gold medal game of Paralympic wheelchair rugby, the first medal of any kind for Britain in the sport.

Wheelchair rugby has been an official Paralympic sport since 2000, and Britain's best finish was fourth place in 2004 and 2008.

Jim Roberts led Britain with 24 tries — tries are worth one point each — and Stuart Robinson added 14. Joshua Wheeler had 21 for the United States and Chuck Aoki of Minneapolis scored 18.

Japan, which was among the pre-tournament favorites, defeated Australia in the bronze medal match earlier on Sunday by a score of 60-52.

The Britain-United States game was tied repeatedly early in the final quarter until Britain pulled away for the victory.

American captain Joe Delagrave, who attended Winona State and Northwestern (St. Paul), had eight tries.

St. Paul's Ben Goodrich won a silver medal after dropping the finale of the men's 100-kilogram judo competition to Christopher Skelley of Great Britain by waza-ari in four minutes.

Goodrich had earned a spot in the gold medal match with a waza-ari win over Anatolii Shevchenko of the Russian Paralympic Committee in the quarterfinals and then a victory by ippon against Antonio Tenorio da Silva of Brazil in the semifinals.

Goodrich, a former high school wrestler, didn't begin judo until 2011, when he was introduced to the sport during a physical education elective course at the University of Minnesota.