The standard of boccia on show this morning has seen the game taken to another level. There were shocks, huge wing margins and 3 matches that needed a tie break to decide who progressed.
In the BC1 class a tie-break was required to split the 2 best players in the World with Smith the eventual victor. Perez of the Netherlands looked comfortable in his tie with Soutanes of Greece whilst there were also wins for Marques of Portugal and Yoo of Korea.
Zhiqiang Yan was able to beat Jeong Min Sohn in under 30 minutes. The Chinese athlete was in control of the encounter throughout and won 4-2. Worawut Saengampa was too strong for Abilo Valente. The Portuguese star was chasing the game and lost 12-1. Vongsa of Thailand overcame Hirose of Japan on court 3. Hirose will be hoping he can return in 4 years time in Tokyo. Meanwhile on court 5 his countryman Sugimura found himself in a tight battle with Jeong from Korea. Jeong was 5-2 down going in to the last end but managed to force a tie break that she later won to book her place in the semi final.
Polychronidis scored in the final end to take his game to a tie break. He eventually beat Ho of Hong Kong in the tie-break to advance into his semi final. Wilson of Great Britain put on an incredible show and almost took his game to a tie break but in the end Kim from Korea showed why he is number 2 in the world. Jeong disappointed the home crowd by beating recent gold medalist De Oliveira with Macedo from Portugal winning the other quarter final.
Yuk Wing Leung threw an incredible final ball to beat Stephen McGuire. Leung will be hoping he can progress through his semi and take gold home to Hong Kong. Alison Levine was unlucky not to progress past Larpyen of Thailand. If she continues to develop as she is we’ll be seeing her fighting for the medals in Tokyo. Samuel Andrejcik had to battle all the way in his game with Yuansen Zheng. The World number 11 has performed better than anyone expected this week and took his game 5-0 to progress into the semi finals.
The semi final matches take place this afternoon with finals and bronze medal matches being played tomorrow. Follow the results online at www.bisfed.com.
