Smith reaches Hong Kong knockout stages

Double Paralympic gold medallist David Smith was one of four Brits to book a place in the quarter-finals after strong second day at the BISFed 2019 Hong Kong Boccia World Open.

BC1 player Smith, who topped the podium at Beijing 2008 and Rio 2016, overcame Spaniard Ferran Ribas 9-1 in Pool A to ensure he will contest the knockout stages.

Smith’s victory was his third of the group stage, following two wins and one defeat on the opening day, and sets up an encounter against Witsanu Huadpradit of Thailand.

He will be joined in the quarter-finals by BC3 players Patrick Wilson and Jamie McCowan.

McCowan defeated Anna Ntenta of Greece 3-2 in Pool B to secure his place in the next round, having also won two matches on the opening day of the event to top the group.

He will face Spaniard Wafid Boucherit for a place in the semi-finals, while Wilson will take on Greek Grigorios Polychronidis in his quarter-final despite losing his last pool game.

Wilson went down to Japan’s Kazuki Takahashi 4-0 in Pool F, but his two wins on the first day were enough to ensure he progressed to the next stage.

The final Brit to reach the knockout round was BC4 player Stephen McGuire, who overcame Brazilian Ercileide da Silva 7-2 for his second win in Pool C to set up another quarter-final clash.

Despite losing his final Pool C match against Ximei Lin 4-2, McGuire’s two wins from his three games booked a quarter-final against Colombian boccia star Euclides Grisales.

It was a tough day for BC4 player Evie Edward, though, who followed up her loss to McGuire a day earlier with further defeats to Lin (11-0) and Da Silva (5-3) in Pool C.

Fellow BC4 player Louis Saunders also unable to progress from Pool F after his 6-2 defeat to Dvor Komar despite finishing with a comfortable 8-0 win against Damir Juren.