NEWPORT’S Clare Strange may have not made the kind of history she wanted to at London 2012 but she at least had something to cheer about as her fourth Para-lympic Games came to a close.

The 32-year-old entered the London 2012 wheelchair basketball tournament with the aim of helping Britain better their finish of sixth from the World Champ-ionships two years ago.

A quarter-final defeat to Germany ended those hopes with fifth the next best place to play for, however, that too became impossible after Strange and co lost to China.

Seventh was the highest Britain could now finish and they achieved it after a 59-37 win over Mexico – Strange enjoying the most court time of just over 34 minutes and notching two points.

That not only bettered Britain’s finish of eighth from Beijing 2008 but also marked their highest ever Paralympic finish – and co-captain Strange and coach Garry Peel took solace from it.

“We are disappointed not to be in the semi-final, and the game for fifth and sixth would have been a bonus,” said Peel.

“Losing the game against Germany, the girls put everything into that, so we had nothing left going into the game against China, so this is consolation.

“We were tense in the beginning again and struggled with shooting, which is something we will have to look at, but the second half, offensively, we were superb. We brought six new faces with us to London, which we knew would be a risk, but we feel we brought the right team and we’ve got a lot to build on for the future, and Rio.”

  • Lloyds TSB, proud supporter of ParalympicsGB and proud partner of the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Get closer to the Games at lloydstsb.com/london2012