Disability Sport Wales
Chwaraeon Anabledd Cymru

Welsh boccia stars bring home double medal success

A promising year for Welsh boccia continued over the weekend at the DSE National Boccia Championships attended by athletes from various regions within England, as well as athletes from Scotland and Wales. 4 Welsh players in all attended this open competition, with three of them being members of FDSW’s Boccia Academy in Karl Parrish, Gareth Stafford and Thomas Ciaburro whilst aspiring BC1 player Rhodri Tudor completed the line-up taking part in his first ever competition.
Tudor produced promising performances in his two games, narrowly losing 3-2 and 4-1; even in defeat he showed his unlimited potential and will no doubt benefit greatly from his first ever competitive tournament.
Meanwhile, in BC3, Thomas Ciaburro and Gareth Stafford both won their groups to qualify for the semi-finals where they would, unfortunately for hopes of a Welsh one-two, face off against each-other. Ciaburro qualified out of his group, winning every group game, including a defeat of fellow Welsh player Karl Parrish, whilst Stafford produced good displays to win both his group games.
The semi-final between the two was, not surprisingly, an extremely tense and tight affair with low scoring ends. Going into the final end, Stafford was defending a 2 point lead, and in an incredibly dramatic and tense conclusion, Ciaburro got a ball scoring meaning if he got his final ball scoring also then the game would go into a tie-break at 3-3; but he would narrowly miss out on this meaning Stafford won 3-2. Semi-finals are often tense affairs, and this was both tense and dramatic; a real sign of what the current crop of Welsh talent is capable of.
Stafford would face Scott McCowan in the final, looking to bring home the title for Wales, but this looked unlikely after McCowan won the first end 5-0. However, Stafford hung in and going into the final end he trailed 7-3; a more than respectable score given the high scoring first end. In dramatic fashion, Stafford fought back from within the jaws of defeat, and dramatically scored 5 points in the final end to win 7-8; an astonishing turn-around of the first end.
For Ciaburro, the 3rd place play-off awaited against Lee Maddison. Ciaburro bounced back from the disappointment of losing the semi-final with a commanding and dominating victory over Maddison by a score of 6-2
All who entered will no doubt have thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and will have picked up invaluable experience which will benefit them in future competitions. For the Welsh stars who attended, there are lots of positives to be taken from the experience.

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