YORKTON - It was a history making double for Canadian basketball at the recent inaugural 2025 IWBF 3×3 Open World Championships in Sun City, South Africa.
Both Canada’s men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams defeated Spain on Sunday to capture gold.
On the men’s side, Canada rallied to a 14-9 win over Spain in a rematch of Friday’s Pool C clash, which saw Team Canada fall 18-12.
On the winning team was Garrett Ostepchuk who began his wheelchair basketball career in Regina.
The gold medal was something Ostepchuk said the team wasn’t anticipating.
“We didn’t fully expect it,” he told Yorkton This Week in a recent interview.
Ostepchuk said when they looked at the other teams in the championship “we didn’t really have the same size.” He said the Canadian team had only one bigger player and they weren’t sure that would be enough.
“We didn’t fully expect to do that well. . . Maybe top-three we were thinking” he said, adding as a result he was still digesting the win. “. . . I’m still trying to come to terms with it.”
That said Ostepchuk said he realizes what the teams did -- the women topped Spain 17-12 to complete the 3×3 Open World Championships undefeated – is historic.
“It was being part of something special,” he said, adding the dual golds “show the level we have in Canada, the pride and determination.”
Once back in Canada it was a chance to share the win. Ostepchuk said he owed his parents a lot.
“I’m super grateful for the amount of support they gave me,” he said.
Players who helped prepare the team, but didn’t make the trip got a pat on the back too.
Ostepchuk has been involved with the sport for years – mostly playing 5-on-5 after seeing a demonstration at his school.
As for the 3v3 game in general, Ostepchuk said it is a very different game.
“There’s just a bit more strategy in 5-on-5,” he said, adding since games on longer there is greater opportunity for coaches to tweak strategy as needed.
With 3-vs-3 it’s adapt as you go.
“You really have to adapt on the fly and in the moment,” he said, adding again because games are 10-minutes or 21 points, when you miss a shot, or two, “You can’t let it affect the next play.”
Ostepchuk said the coach lays out a game plan, and then once a game starts the players must change whatever needs changed if that plan is not working.
“The coach just kind of watches,” he said.
Hosted by Wheelchair Basketball South Africa, the 2025 IWBF 3×3 Open World Championships were the first-ever 3×3 wheelchair basketball world championship. The tournament celebrates the growth of 3×3 wheelchair basketball and offers smaller nations an opportunity to shine on the global stage, notes www.wheelchairbasketball.ca
The World Championships were the second 3×3 tournament for Canada’s wheelchair basketball teams. The women won gold and the men took silver at the sport’s debut at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.
Up next for Ostepchuk will be the America’s Cup with Canada’s 5-on-five squad, a sort of training event as the team does not need to qualify as the Worlds will be held in Ottawa in 2026.
Then Ostepchuk heads to Germany for a pro stint in that country.
