Indonesia 2018: Spotlight on boccia

Stars of August’s World Championships are back for more 18 Sep 2018

Man in a wheelchair throwing a red boccia ball

Thailand's Worawut Saengampa is one of the stars of the Asian Para Games in Indonesia

By IPC

The boccia competition at the Indonesia 2018 Asian Para Games comes hot on the heels of the 2018 Boccia World Championships that took place in Liverpool, Great Britain in August. The dominant team there were Thailand, who topped the medals table with two golds and a bronze.

BC2 player Worawut Saengampa from Thailand will be hoping to repeat his Liverpool performance where he first claimed a gold medal in the individual stages and then won another in the team pairs.

China will also be going into the Asian Para Games brimming with confidence after their strong performance in Liverpool left the world No. 10 ranked nation in third place on the medals table with four, including one gold.

It was Yusansen Zheng who won the title in the BC4 class, providing some consolation for the Chinese team after Kai Sun (BC1) and Zhiquiang Yan (BC2) were both beaten into second place in their finals.

Surely though Hong Kong’s reigning Paralympic champion Yuk Wing Leung will be out to stop Zheng repeating his victory.

Worlds gold and silver at BC1/BC2

South Korea’s Howon Jeong is hoping to put his performance at August’s Boccia World Championships behind him. In the contest for the BC3 world title Jeong, the reigning Paralympic champion, threw away a commanding lead against Greece’s Greg Polychronidis, eventually losing out 6-5.

He also lost out on the gold medal four years ago at the Incheon 2014 Asian Para Games when fellow Korean Jun-Yup Kim beat him in front of his home crowd. Will he manage to keep his nerves and repeat his Rio medal-winning performance this time?

In the team and pairs events, Thailand will be the force to stop. The BC1/BC2 event could be a re-run of the World Championship final where Thailand narrowly beat Japan 5-4. They also scooped silver in the BC4 pairs event making them the in-form team to beat.

169 medals are up for grabs over six days of competition which will take place in the Main Stadium of the Gelora Bung Karno complex. The Asian Para Games run from 6-13 October.