Media release
May 8 2008
NZ Boccia athletes heading to Beijing win gold and bronze in Montreal
New Zealand Boccia athletes competing in Canada have demonstrated why they were selected in Tuesday’s Paralympics New
Zealand team announcement for the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games.
Greig Jackson stormed his way through the qualifying events, to reach the final where he won the gold medal, defeating
the reigning Paralympic champion, and world number 2.
Kerry Jenkinson, Team Manager says, “Greig played an excellent game against the BC3 gold medallist from Athens, Paul
Gauthier, to take out the final 7 – 0. The score doesn’t reflect the tightness of the game and the intensity of the
match.
“In the teams event Maurice Toon, Jeremy Morriss and Kerri Bonner, played extremely well beating the world ranked number
one Great Britain team.”
The pairs team beat Canada to win the bronze medal. The pairs team comprised Greig Jackson, Henk Dijkstra and Mandy
Slade.
Maurice Toon made it through to the quarter finals, before losing to the eventual silver medallist, Pablo Cortez from
Argentina. Other countries competing include: Argentina, Scotland, Great Britain, Canada and China.
Fiona Allan, Chief Executive Paralympics New Zealand says, “This has been a successful tournament for New Zealand Boccia
athletes and bodes well for Beijing.”
The Boccia team selected yesterday for Beijing is as follows
Kerri Bonner
Henk Dijkstra
Greig Jackson
Jeremy Morriss
Liam Sanders
Amanda Slade
Maurice Toon
Canterbury
Otago
Canterbury
Canterbury
Auckland
Auckland
Waikato
ends