Boccia: Moran, Leahy & Cronin still on course to advance to the knockout stages at Boccia World Championships
June 9th, 2010. In: CPSI|
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Following two days of non-stop round-robin play at the Boccia World Championships in Lisbon, Ireland’s Padraic Moran (BC1), Tom Leahy (BC2) and John Cronin (BC3) all look set to qualify from their pools to the knockout last 32 stage.
With such a large worldwide entry, the pool stages are test of endurance with one mistake often punished leaving the chance of qualifying very remote with only 2 athletes to qualify from each pool. The Irish squad have generally performed well however.
Padraic Moran from Bray is Ireland’s only BC1 athlete and has only played 1 of his 3 pool matches to date. In a tight game, Moran overcame Yi Wang of China 6:5 to set himself up with a strong chance of qualifying. The victory was extra sweet for Moran as Yang was the man who knocked Moran out with a final ball fluke shot in the quarter-final at Beijing 2008.
In the BC2 class, Ballyhooly’s Tom Leahy has had a comfortable series to date with two comprehensive victories 9;0 over Korinek (CZE) and 10:0 over Peklar (SLO). Bobbie Connolly from Dublin has recorded two wins and one loss to date and faces a must win game against Serbus (CZE) in the morning. Jason Kearney from Dublin has struggled to date losing his two matches with a final pool game against Yan (CHN) tomorrow.
John Cronin from Mallow leads the way for Ireland in the BC3 class with two wins from two outings to date. Cronin didn’t have it all his own way as he was victorious over Limerick’s Gerard O’Grady following a tie-break. Cronin has a pool winning decider against old adversary Yolanda Martin from Spain tomorrow following her defeat of O’Grady also. Ireland’s major championship first-timer, Jennifer Garde has had an encouraging start to her International career with two losses and a 6:0 victory over Burianek (SVK).
Play continues tomorrow with the final pool matches and the opening games in the knockout stages.
Competition website: www.boccia2010/clipsoft.pt
Full Irish Team results available by clicking here.
INFO SOURCE - Paralympic Council of Ireland - www.pcireland.ie