Abderrahim Taghrest, known at school as Abs, struck gold with his GB teammates at the recent IWBF U23 European Championships in Madrid. Great Britain defeated Germany 60 – 40 in the final on 29th June.

GB won their gold defeating every team they encountered in the competition.  Abs wears No5 for GB and plays at ‘guard’.

Abs, who left BMS sixth form at the end of the 2022 academic year, added his European gold to the bronze medal he’d previously won with team England at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games of that same summer.

Back then he told Greatest Hits Radio he was “excited”, “nervous” and wanted to “do Hertfordshire proud.”

Abderrahim started playing wheelchair basketball in 2012 when he was 8 years old. He was inspired to get into sport after watching the Paralympics whilst in hospital. The hospital had a wheelchair basketball club next door, and the rest is history!

His physiotherapist took him along to the club where he fell in love with the sport – and a few months later he started training!

Abs also commented that he had “always wanted to compete in a big game” but never expected it to be the “massive” Commonwealth Games.

He was asked, what he enjoyed most about representing England?

“Playing in front of the home crowd was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, every time we entered the arena, scored a basket or made a highlight play, the arena roared. For me, the best part of competing in the Commonwealth Games was sharing the court with some amazing teammates.”

In 2022 Abs said that “in the future”, his aim is to “compete in the Paralympic games”, so having now won European Gold, it must be a case of – watch this space!