GB Team into semi-finals

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Fresh from winning a gold and a silver in the individuals at the World Boccia Championships in Rio, the GB BC1/2 Team is into the semi-finals following a nail-biting encounter against Portugal. 

Newly crowned BC2 World Champion Claire Taggart and David Smith OBE, who won silver in the BC1 category, will be eyeing another medal alongside team-mate Will Hipwell.

Going right down to tiebreak after scoring five apiece, the pressure was on but Britain took the lead, playing critical balls brilliantly:

“The team have put in some consistently solid performances over the last couple of days and find themselves at the business end of a world championships,” said Boccia UK Performance Director Greg Baker. “They are collaborating and working effectively as a team, with all members playing crucial shots at the right time. 

Will Hipwell poised to throw in the quarter finals of the Team event

 

On Monday, the trio seized an 11-0 win over Canada. And yesterday, a 7-2 victory for the Team over the Netherlands put them at the top of pool D.

They now face Argentina, who are third in the world rankings. Smith said:

“Argentina are great players, they’re a good Team and have just beaten the world’s best, Thailand, in the semi-finals. We’re all really looking forward to it. It’ll be a good clash.”

Taggart explained:

"We last played Argentina in Tokyo and it was a really good game. We won but it was tight., It's important not to get complacent now and focus on the game in hand. We're playing well and we hope to continue that tomorrow."

The GB Team sit in number five spot of the rankings and won gold at the World Cup in Povoa earlier this year. British hopes now rest on them as the BC3 Pair and BC4 Pair were not able to progress into knock-out rounds.

The BC3 Pair found themselves in a very tough pool alongside South Korea - Paralympic Champions - and World Champions, Greece.

Reading’s Will Arnott and Antrim’s Robyn McBride went down 0-7 to Korea before losing on tiebreak to the impressive Greece pair, In their final pool match, they ended on a high winning 12-0 over South Africa.

In the BC4 Pairs, Stephen McGuire and Fiona Muirhead, both from Lanarkshire, got off to a good start with an important and solid win over Hungary. But they were overcome by the world number two pairing from Hong Kong and were then defeated by Spain.