The Canadian Boccia National Team finished the Team and Pair portion of the CPISRA 2011 Boccia World Cup in Belfast, Ireland with two fourth place finishes. The BC3 and BC4 Pairs gave everything they had but both pairs suffered defeat in the Bronze medal games.
“Its frustrating not to have a podium finish when we are so close but other than those two defeats in the BC3 and BC4 Pairs, I’m happy with the results. This confirms that we are improving even as the competition is getting stronger and stronger”, said Mario Delisle, Head Coach of the National Team Program. “We met the objectives we had this year for the Team and Pair competition”.
In the BC4 Category, Marco Dispaltro (St-Jerome, QC), Josh Vander Vies (Sarnia, ON) and Caroline Vietnieks lost 8-3 against the Czech Republic in the bronze medal game final. "We played an exhausting two days," Vander Vies remarked, "and I am proud of how well we executed our shots, strategy and team chemistry. We are well placed going into London 2012, and learned a lot from playing the world's top teams again at the World Cup. A Paralympic podium is within our reach." Brazil won gold for the second time in a row followed by Thailand.
Alison Kabush (Surrey, BC), Paul Gauthier (Vancouver, BC) and Bruno Garneau (Montreal, QC) completed their tournament in the BC3 category with a 4-3 lost against Portugal. The game was decided in the last end. “This loss not only made us realize our potential but it also made us stronger as a team and as individuals” said Gauthier. “We leave this tournament knowing that we are getting better even if there was no hardware to show for it”. Greece climbed on top of the podium and Belgium was second.
Team BC1/BC2 members Francois Bourbonniere (Montreal, QC), Adam Dukovich (London, ON), Tammy McLeod (London, ON), Keven Smith-Worthylake (Ottawa, ON) and Brock Richardson (Brampton, ON) were eliminated by eventual bronze medalists from Great Britain. South Korea got the gold ahead of the surprising Japanese team.
The individual competition starts tomorrow. Follow the Canadian athletes at www.ccpsa.ca, on the CCPSA facebook page or at http://www.sportsulster.com/boccia2011.php .
