¡¡ATHENS, Sept. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Defending champions and top-seeded United States team is generally taken to be favored for the wheelchair rugby title at the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games.

    The Americans face tough challengers, especially Canada and Australia who have pushed the Sydney gold medalists to the limit in major competitions.

    Australia lost to the United States 32-31 in the final of the Sydney Paralympic Games four years ago and the Canadians went downto the Americans 33-32 in a Paralympics warm-up tournament in June.

    Backed by their strong domestic competition, the Americans proved too powerful for Germany, Belgium, Britain and Canada in the preliminary rounds of the pre-Paralympic tournament but encountered greater opposition in the semi-final and final.

    In a change of tactics, the Germans slowed down the pace of the game in the semi-final in an effort to frustrate the Americans before going down 13-7 in a low scoring game.

    The United States tied with Canada two minutes from time in thefinal, but the Americans kept possession for a thrilling victory.

    Britain finished strongly in the tournament, defeating Germany 36-29 to take third place and clinched fourth seed position for Athens.

    Third seeded Australia and sixth-ranked New Zealand did not take part in the tournament. Instead they had their warm-up for Athens in a five-game Cup series in tropical Cairns, Far North Queensland, which Australia won 3-2.

    The traditional sporting rivals will meet again in the Athens Games Pool A opening preliminary round on Sunday. The winner will almost certainly advance to the semi-final along with the Americans.

    In Pool B, second-seeded Canada look set for a semi-final spot with Britain, Germany and Belgium contesting the other spot.

    The wheelchair rugby competition will be held at the Helliniko Olympic Complex between 19-25 September with a rest day on September 22.

    The United States are drawn into Pool A, together with Australia, New Zealand and Japan while Pool B consists of Canada, Britain, Germany and Belgium. Enditem