NZ Boccia athletes win gold and bronze in Montreal
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