Ireland call up for Limerick Wheelchair Basketballer Joseph Hargrow for European Championships

Joseph Hargrow pictured at the Irish Wheelchair Association National Cup Semi-Final, MTU Arena, Cork in January 2025. Photo: ©INPHO/Andrew Conan

Limerick Celtics Wheelchair Basketball player Joseph Hargrow flies the flag for Ireland as they aim for promotion in the 2026 European Championships

The European Wheelchair Basketball Championships have gotten underway in Samokov, Bulgaria, with Ireland bouncing back from an early defeat to Sweden in the opening game to beat Finland later in the day to get their promotion hopes back on track.

Representing Ireland at this year’s European Championships is Limerick Celtic’s athlete, Joseph Hargrow is hopeful the Ireland squad can push on this time round, having missed out on promotion in the previous competition.

Ireland come into the competition ranked 21st in the standings as they hope to leave their mark on a tough group with all teams ranking in the top 30.

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Speaking ahead of the competition, Hargrow said, “We have a great squad, and it was tough missing out so narrowly last time around. We’ve worked hard, and even at club level, the teams in Ireland are pushing each other to be better every season. We’re ready, and hopefully we’ll leave Bulgaria with promotion sealed.”

Ireland faced Sweden on the opening day, losing out narrowly in a hotly contested 48-43 loss. Later in the day, the Irishmen took to the court again, where they came out on top 55 – 43 against a Finland team ranked 23rd in the standings. In their early game on Tuesday, September 9, Ireland showed their strength against the 25th-ranked Armenian team, bringing a 44 – 04 lead into the second half before continuing to add to the lead, finishing strong with an 80 – 8 victory.

Helping Ireland in their bid to move up to Division B will be Head Coach Con Coughlan, Assistant Coaches Alan Dineen and Richard Sargent, Team Manager Adrian Donoghue and Team Physio Jana Hargrow-Prihonska.

Speaking ahead of this year’s tournament, Coach Coughland told Irish Wheelchair Association Sport, “Preparations have gone well with great buy-in from the squad. Our final get-together will be this weekend, prior to travelling on Thursday. We don’t play on the first day of the competition so we will get to see the other teams playing.”

Adding, “Both groups are strong, but for the moment we have to concentrate on our side of the draw and take it one game at a time. On day two of the competition, we have two games facing Sweden and Finland, followed by Armenia on day three and lastly Belgium. We are conscious there are some quality nations in our group, with two of the sides previously playing in the A & B Championships. We’re going to leave it all out on the court and give it our best from all involved.”

Ireland’s remaining group game will see them take on Belgium, ranked 20th, on Wednesday, September 10, at 11:30 am IST. All of Ireland’s games are available to stream on the IWBF Europe YouTube channel.