As we prepare for three major tournaments in Europe this month, it is critical that we be smart about our rest. The first international test we will have outside of Canada since the Parapan American Games in Guadalajara will be the Roser Pecanins International Trophy. We arrived in Barcelona a few days early to acclimatise to our home continent for the next weeks.
After competing in doubles and singles in Spain, we will face our biggest contest of the tour – the Portuguese Master’s Boccia Invitational where we will face 9 of the world’s top BC4 doubles and a world class singles tournament. Here we will be playing many of our Paralympic opponents in a top notch competition. Lastly, we finish in Wigan, England with the Cheshire Building Society International Boccia Championships. The Cheshire is becoming a very prestigious team and doubles only event on the world circuit. We finished second there last year, and will be hunting for gold there, and across our tour this year.
For now though, we are getting our rest, eating great fresh food and getting back to training. The Roser Pecanins begins Friday evening and we will be ready.
I don’t normally get to see much on competition trips, but this time we were able to spend some time on the Barcelona trolley and metro systems, take in La Rambla, a beautiful downtown pedestrian street, and the stunning Sagrada Familia cathedral in progress by prolific Spanish architect Gaudi. It feels great to be a tourist every now and then: