On the final day of the 2010 Canadian Boccia Championship, Team Ontario’s BC4 pair of Josh Vander Vies and Dale Stevenson fought for two extremely tough wins. In the morning match against Caroline Vietnicks and Sylvain Comeau of Team British Columbia – New Brunswick, Ontario gave up three points in the third end, but remained in control of the entire match, finishing with a 4-3 win.
“We felt great going into, what was surely going to be a high skill match-up, against Québec,” said Vander Vies, after his first match.
The first end against Québec started off with balls relatively spread apart, until Vander Vies hit the jack behind another Ontario ball, at a backward angle. Along with some great blocking by Stevenson, Ontario scored one point. The next end saw great placements by Jonathan Poulin and solid hitting from Mario Babin, both of Québec, giving them a single point. The final two ends were tight showdowns of strategy and skill, resulting in one point for each team, each end.
The score was 2-2 after 4 ends, which results in an overtime, 5th end. The jack is placed on the centre cross, and a coin is flipped to determine which side will throw first. Québec won the coin toss and Poulin placed his ball completely covering the jack. With two soft balls smothering each other, it took Ontario 5 balls to dislodge them. With one ball remaining, Vander Vies did not have a clear shot at the jack, and placed the final Ontario ball just out of scoring range.
“This was by far the best quality BC4 pairs games ever played at a Canadian championship,” said Vander Vies. “Although the loss stings, I am so excited to see our program developing to higher levels each year. We now have the chance to train in tough game situations, under pressure. Other countries should watch out.”
The results of the other team classifications are below.
BC4
1. Québec
2. Ontario
3. British Columbia – New Brunswick
BC3
1. Québec
2. British Columbia
3. OntarioBC2/BC1
1. Ontario
2. Québec
3. British Columbia
4. New Brunswick – Ontario
For more information on the sport of boccia, see why Boccia is a Precision Sport.
