Wigan's Paralympic star reflects on 'devastating' end to Paris adventure

ParalympicsGB fought back from 12 points down but succumbed to 73-69 defeat to the USA in a pulsating final, unable to prevent the American side from making it three titles on the trot.

And despite winning their first silver medal in the sport since Atlanta 1996, Leigh-born Warburton – who studied sports at Wigan and Leigh College – was left feeling like he had missed out on a golden title in Paris.

"I'm devastated," said Warburton. "Firstly, congratulations to the US. They deserved to win this. They stamped their authority on the game early on. We were never able to implement the game plan. We just didn't execute to the level we came here expecting to."

A mighty 71-43 win over Germany snapped a streak of six successive semi-final losses, the emphatic margin of victory and manner of performance fuelling hope that they could go one better for gold.

Warburton, 27, has been one of the key weapons on the court for ParalympicsGB this Games, scoring 35 points in the semi-final which broke their curse.

But it was not enough to overcome the mighty USA on the day.

"I believed 100 per cent in the game plan that we had," he said. "We've had a heck of a tournament.

"We've blown pretty much every team away by 20 points. It's just tough when you get to the big dance at the end, and you don't execute in the final."

Warburton now adds Paralympic silver to his two bronze medals at Rio and Tokyo.

Despite going one further to upgrade, he admitted that gold was the only colour on his mind heading into Paris and will continue the search as he once again settles in for the four-year cycle to LA.

"It's tough right now but we'll be back here for sure," he said. "It's a long way away right now, and for us, anything less than gold was a huge disappointment and not what we came here for."

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