It was a successful Saturday for PACE Boccia at the first of this year’s BE National Championships Qualifiers in Cheltenham.
PACE had three athletes competing across the categories BC1-BC4 on Saturday 18th April, with all three successfully coming away with a medal of some description.
The star man of the day was Jason Rolph, who absolutely romped to a BC2 Gold medal. Jason was undefeated on the day, winning his five matches by an enormous .combined margin of 30 points, ultimately cruising to victory 7-1 in the gold medal match.
“it was great to get back in the flow of Boccia again by going to a new venue, after a fairly long break last year to keep the mind sharp”, said Jason. “Thankfully I have had everyone at PACE to support me for the past 2 years and I think that has really helped in giving me a new focus, and a platform to learn from in how to better manage myself during those pressure moments”.
Elsewhere there was a success in the BC3 and BC4 categories for Ted Barnard and Charlie Reynolds respectively, with both athletes coming away with silver medals.
Ted completely dominated his group stage pool, with 13-2 and 9-2 victories, adding a convincing 8-2 win in the semifinals before narrowly losing out in the final. Nevertheless it was an impressive showing from the ramper.
Charlie, playing the first BE National Championships Qualifier of his career, also came home with silver after finishing second in the BC4 round robin format.
“It was great to get a first taste of BE Nationals qualifying action,” said Charlie. “And even better to add a medal to the collection! Hopefully this can be a good first step on the road to making the actual finals in September.”
Athletes are able to compete in a total of three regional qualifiers in order to accrue the qualifying points required for finals day – so with strong finishes on the first leg of qualification, PACE look well set for strong representation in September’s finals.