13 August 2018

Smith made to work for semi-final spot at World Championships

Great Britain’s David Smith MBE was made to work extremely hard at the 2018 World Boccia Championships on Wednesday before clinching his spot in the semi-final.

The Paralympic gold medallist and world number one dropped his first point of the tournament in the second end of Wednesday’s quarter-final against Japan’s Takumi Nakamura.

And despite taking a lead in the third, the match went to a tiebreak which Smith eventually won to book his spot in the final four.

“His tactics made me work hard,” said Smith.

Quote

I’ve played well all week but sometimes it’s good to win ugly because it is important to battle and dig deep.”

David Smith MBE

David Smith will face Thailand’s Witsanu Huadpradit in his semi-final at 9am on Wednesday morning.

Elsewhere, there was heartbreak for fellow home favourite Stephen McGuire as the BC4 world number one and reigning champion was beaten by Germany’s Boris Nicolai.

“I’m disappointed not to reach the standards I hit in the group stages,” said McGuire after the match. “But I credit Boris as he gained court position quickly.

“I managed to claw my way back into it and although it came down to the last couple of balls, my opponent deserved the win.

“My focus now switches to the pairs event - we’re feeling confident and we’ll be putting all our energy into securing a medal.”

Jamie McCowan also exited the BC3 competition after defeat to Paralympic gold medallist Howon Jeong of Korea while Patrick Wilson’s individual competition also came to an end.

Wilson was beaten at the Last 16 stage by Aleksander Legostaev of Russia.

Meanwhile BC2 player Claire Taggart was unable to get out of the group stages after falling 2-3 to Mateusz Urbanski of Poland.

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