16 August 2018

Future is bright for Britain after Boccia World Championships

The British boccia squad showed they could compete with the best in the world according to Helen Nicholls, Performance Director of Boccia UK as the team’s medal campaign came to a close at the BISFed 2018 World Boccia Championships.

The BC3 and BC4 teams were in action on Friday in Liverpool, both falling at the quarter-final stages.

After David Smith’s individual title earlier in the week, the performances are proof that Britain are in a good position two years out from Tokyo 2020 according to Nicholls.

She said: “Overall as a squad we demonstrated our ability to compete in the top three in the world across all classifications but the significant challenge with international boccia is delivering ability when it really counts.

“The next two years will be focussed on ensuring that we are in position to be ready to deliver our best performance on the bigger stages; the holy grail of being an elite athlete. From my perspective, one of the fantastic things about this week is witnessing the high standard of boccia across all classifications. The sport globally is in a really healthy position.”

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I’m disappointed to be on the wrong side of it but extremely proud of my young team.”

Stephen McGuire

The BC4 team of Stephen McGuire, Evie Edwards and Louis Saunders were beaten by Slovakia in their quarter-final, with McGuire impressed by the efforts of the young side.

He said: “That match was always going to be a battle. We’re world number two and Slovakia are world No 1. We only met in quarters because they didn’t win their pool. I want to credit everybody who played in that match – the quality was high, the passion was there and the crowd were amazing. We now need to focus our attention on qualifying for Tokyo and giving ourselves best opportunity. I believe we’ll be ready.

“I’m disappointed to be on the wrong side of it but extremely proud of my young team.”

Stephen McGuire. Getty Images

Meanwhile in the BC3 team, Jess Hunter, Jamie McCowan and Patrick Wilson were beaten 4-1 by Greece, with captain Wilson admitting they had come up against a better team on the day.

He said: “We did everything possible to win that game.

“In the end, they were just that bit better than us. I think we’ve shown what we can do when we play at our best so now we need to do that more consistently as we look ahead to Tokyo.”

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