Boccia glory for Brazil in front of home crowd

Brazil celebrated boccia glory on their home court, with three of their own winning individual gold medals at the BISFed Sao Paulo Boccia Regional Open.

The Boccia International Sports Federation (BISFed) event was the second held in the Americas region, and wrapped up on Sunday (27 May), with just over two months to go until the 2018 World Championships in August.

Maciel Santos, Evelyn de Oliveira and Eliseu dos Santos each won their respective events, and strengthened their top-10 world ranking positions ahead of the 2018 Worlds.

Santos defeated compatriot Genilson Carvalho 7-3 to win the BC2 individual gold medal. The world No. 2 added to his victory from the Montreal World Open in April.

The BC3 individual finals also featured an all-Brazilian match-up. Oliveira topped Mateus Carvalho 6-2 to secure her first win of the year.

Eliseu dos Santos had no trouble in the BC4 event, cruising to a 10-1 victory over Chile’s Brahiam Alcaino.

"The Chilean played well in the other stages, but now in the end he ended up making some mistakes. I think my Paralympic medals weighed a little, I made him nervous,” joked dos Santos, who owns five Paralympic medals, including two golds.

Mexico’s Eduardo Sanchez Reyes prevented an all-Brazilian sweep. He held off Guilherme Moraes 4-2 in the BC1 category to impress in his first competition of the year.

The home nation also stood on top of the podiums in the pairs BC3 and BC4, and team BC1/BC2 events.

The competition comprised of 42 athletes from eight countries: Chile, Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Peru and Brazil.

Complete results from the Sao Paulo Boccia Regional Open are available on BISFed’s website.

Next up is the Povoa Boccia World Open in Portugal from 2-9 July.

The BISFed 2018 World Boccia Championships will take place 9-19 August in Liverpool, Great Britain.