TERRY BYWATER insists a third Paralympic bronze medal will taste just as sweet as gold as Great Britain were outclassed by Canada in their London 2012 wheelchair basketball semi-final last night.

Bywater, 29, and co were downed 69-53 by the Beijing 2008 silver medallists at the North Greenwich Arena, ensuring they will battle for a third consecutive bronze medal on Saturday, for the third time running against the USA.

Great Britain remained very much in the game at half-time and trailed by just six points but as has often been the case, the third quarter let them down, leaving the European champions crestfallen, with their hopes of gold in tatters.

But Bywater, who was part of the team that won bronze in both Athens and Beijing, offered a frank assessment of Great Britain’s performance, admitting they were simply not up to scratch on the night.

“We have to be professional and face the fact that we were not good enough,” said Bywater. “It’s devastating because we knew we had a chance, we had a really good chance to finally beat the Canadians but we’ve let it slip.

“It’s the same old story and we let it slip in the third quarter.

We have to give credit to them, they are a world class team and they produced a world class performance all across the board.

“But it’s difficult because we’ve been in this position so often and we were so desperate to go that bit further this time but it wasn’t to be.

“We’ve got the USA again now which was the case in Beijing and we know all about them and how tough they’ll be but that bronze medal is out gold now.”