Portugal and Great Britain shine at boccia Euros

It was an all Portuguese affair in the BC2 final, as favourite Abilo Valente was overcome by fellow countryman Fernando Ferreira emphatically, in which finished in a whitewash score of 8-0.

Great Britain and Portugal claimed three gold medals each at the 2013 European Boccia Championships in Guimaraes, Portugal last week, with competitors from Greece, Hungary and Slovakia also grabbing medals for their country.

David Smith of Great Britain was victorious in his BC1 final matchup against Greece’s Panagiotis Soulanis, comfortably winning 6-1, and Daniel Perez of the Netherlands picked up a bronze medal just as easily, by defeating Czech Republic’s Katerina Curinova, 6-0.

Smith won yet another gold, as he helped Great Britain come out on top in their heavyweight clash against Portugal, in the BC1 and BC2 final match, which finished at a close 5-4.

Also in the same classification, Slovakia made themselves known by edging out Spain in their bronze playoff match.

It was an all Portuguese affair in the BC2 final, as favourite Abilo Valente was overcome by fellow countryman Fernando Ferreira emphatically, in which finished in a whitewash score of 8-0.

Martin Manuel claimed Spain’s only medal of the tournament, as he beat Great Britain’s Nigel Murray 8-3 for the BC2 bronze medal.

The BC3 gold-medal match served up a clash between two 2012 Paralympic medal winners, as crowd favourite Jose Macedo of Portugal was able to edge out Greece’s Greg Polychronidis by the narrowest of margins, with the match having to be decided by a golden point, and Belgium’s Kirsten De Laender defeated Great Britain’s Jess Hunter 3-1 in the bronze medal match.

Macedo and Polychrinidis met again in the BC3 pairs final, and Macedo was again victorious, as his team won convincingly with a score of 7-2, whereas Hunter exacted revenge upon de Laender, as Great Britain added a bronze medal to their collection after a tight game against Belgium.

Newcomer Samuel Andrejcik of Slovakia created one of the shocks of the tournament by defeating Greece’s Christos Kavanas in the BC4 final, 4-3.

Slovakia’s Roberto Durkovic was unable to pull off a medal winning performance like his countryman Andrejcik, as Hungary’s Dezso Beres won their bronze medal match 3-1.

Beres was unable to prevent his country from having to settle for a silver medal in the BC4 pairs final, as Hungary fell to a dominant Great Britain side 6-1, and Greece outscored the Czech Republic 4-3 to win bronze.