Turner looks to positives despite winless BT Paralympic World Cup
HELEN Turner insists there are more positives than negatives for Great Britain's female wheelchair basketball team despite a winless BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.
LEARNING CURVE: Helen Turner insists Team GB will be better for facing the likes of USA and Australia ahead of London 2012
The Brits faced up against USA, Australia and Germany, the three medallists at the last Paralympics in Beijing, and the challenge was a bridge too far for Turner and co.
But with few opportunities to test themselves against the best in the world, Turner maintains that Britain have learned a lot ahead of the Paralympics in London later this year.
The 34-year-old - who had a place at the Paralympics confirmed after the World Cup - said: "We don't get that many international tournaments, America play a lot more than we do. The more we have the better it will be for us.
"We've got to play the USA and Australia. You can see we play Germany quite a lot because we played extremely well against them.
"We've been up and down. Obviously we haven't won any matches but we're not devastated. We know we're still learning so we're OK.
"We're going to the States in a couple of weeks and everyone's really excited. We get to play them again so we can sort out those problems.
"You can't undervalue the importance of playing these kind of games on a regular basis. We've got a young team, they do feel the nerves and the pressure. The more they do it the more used to it they'll get.
"It's going to be very exciting in London. The more the crowd gets behind us the better we will play."
Having won the event a year ago, Britain struggled against the higher calibre opposition, going down by double figures in each match.
But while the results were not what Turner had hoped for, she was confident that World Cup was the perfect dress rehearsal for London later this year.
She added: "I know a lot of the girls feel the pressure so this is why the Paralympic World Cup is so good for us.
"The BT Paralympic World Cup is great for promoting the sport. It gets us on Channel 4 which is brilliant and there's quite a few people in the crowds.
"A lot of people in Manchester are very interested, they keep asking us about it, so it's definitely good for our profile.
"The BT Paralympic World Cup is always great, we've been here for the last seven years. It's our only home tournament on this kind of scale."
The BT Paralympic World Cup took place in Manchester from 22-26 May with elite international athletes competing in Athletics, Football 7-aside and Wheelchair Basketball. Go to www.btparalympicworldcup.com for more information
(c) Sportsbeat 2012
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