I am home after an exhausting 12+ hour journey from Northern Ireland. Thanks to everyone for your support while I was competing in Belfast at the 2011 Boccia World Cup. I finished my pool play with a loss to Hyeon Seok Seo of Korea which meant I did not advance out of my pool. The scores of my individual matches were:
VS. Yoocharoen Sataporn (THA) Loss 3-5
VS. Martin Burian (SVK) Win 6-4
VS. Hyeon Seok Seo (KOR) Loss 1-7
Finishes below the top 16 knockout rounds are calculated by point spread, putting me in 25th place out of 37 competitors. This is a disappointing finish for me individually, but I am proud of how I played and how my game has matured. I learned a lot this week and will train hard to keep up with the world’s best players.
My teammate, Marco Dispaltro, had an excellent individual competition, finishing with the silver medal after winning his knockout matches and advancing to the gold medal match. He lost a very close final to Eliseu Dos Santos (BRA) and showed he is an amazing boccia player.
Earlier in the competition, my Canadian team mates Caroline Vietnicks Marco Dispaltro and I finished a fantastic 4th out of 12 countries. We await the official International Rankings, however it appears that this is good enough to earn Canada a spot at the London 2012 Summer Paralympic Games. The Canadian Paralympic Team will be selected sometime next year, and I will be training and competing hard for a spot on the team, and a medal in London.
Thanks for your support boccia fans! Go Canada Go!
