Rotherham's Gavin Walker aims for honours at the Paralympic Games

ROTHERHAM'S Gavin Walker has his sights fairly and squarely on a Paralymic Games medal with the Team GB wheelchair rugby team.

It is the second Paralympics for the former fireman who finished fifth with GB in his Paralympics debuts in Rio in 2016.

Currently ranked fourth in the world, Walker and his team-mates are serious medal contenders in Japan and enter the competition in good form. 

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In 2019, he and his fellow co-captain Chris Ryan led Great Britain to their third consecutive European title and most recently he was part of the GB team which won the 2021 King Power Quad Nations tournament in Leicester

Gavin started playing wheelchair rugby following an accident in 2010 when he broke his neck slipping on wet decking whilst working for the fire service. 

During his rehab he was introduced to wheelchair rugby and in 2011 he went to his first training session. In the same year he joined the Development Squad alongside a new cohort of players who now make up the main body of the national squad.

Gavin continued to work for the fire service in Sheffield until 2012. 

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The following year he was selected for the national squad and became a full-time athlete, putting him on the road to Rio and, now, Tokyo. 

Like all the competing athletes, father-of-two Walker, who plays his club rugby with Leicester Tigers, has had to wait an extra year to compete in the Games due to the pandemic.