Smith wins gold at Boccia World Open

Two-time Paralympic champion David Smith was too good for Mikhail Gutnik as he clinched Boccia World Open gold in Portugal.

Smith, who has four Paralympic medals to his name in total, was too good for Andre Ramos and Witsanu Huadpradit on his way to the final in Povoa on Friday.

There he raced into a 4-0 lead against the Russian before Gutnik scored two straight points to put the pressure on.

But Smith kept himself clear of his rival to seal gold with a 5-2 victory in the BC1 individual event.

Jamie McCowan claimed the silver medal in the BC3 individual after he lost 5-0 to Greek player Grigorios Polychronidis in the final.

McCowan overcame Eric Bussiere and Anna Ntenta on Friday but the final was a round too far as Polychronidis won gold against the 23-year-old.

It was a doubly good day in the BC3 competition for Great Britain as Patrick Wilson recovered from defeat in the semi-final to win the bronze medal.

Wilson came through his last eight contest with Damian Iskrzycki in the BC3 individual, winning 5-1 before losing to eventual BC3 victor Polychronidis in the last four.

But Wilson produced a fine performance to pick up a respectable third place - prevailing 4-1 against Ntenta.

Elsewhere Stephen McGuire was just edged out in the third-fourth place playoff of the BC4 against Thai opponent Pornchok Larpyen 4-3.

McGuire had beaten Slovakia’s Michaela Balcova in the quarter-final before losing to Samuel Andrejcik in the last four.