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Boccia team focused and ready for action in Rio

A team of 10 boccia athletes and four competition partners have today been announced by the British Paralympic Association (BPA), including reigning individual BC4 World Champion and Pairs BC4 European Champion Stephen McGuire and London 2012 medallists David Smith and Nigel Murray MBE.

David Smith playing boccia

A Paralympic-specific sport similar to boules, boccia is a sport that requires deep tactical nuance as well as incredible accuracy and control from its athletes.

Games can be nail-bitingly tense with the result often not decided until the final ball is thrown.

As a result, athletes have to maintain intense concentration if they want to come out on top. 

Smith was a London 2012 individual BC1 silver medallist and featured in the bronze medal-winning BC1/BC2 team at London 2012 alongside Murray, and he said: 

“I am really happy to be selected to compete at my third Paralympic Games. Beijing and London were both completely different experiences, and I look forward to finding out what Rio has in store for me."

Today’s announcement takes the number of selected athletes to 215 from 19 sports.

Selected athletes are:

BC1 David Smith (competition partner: Sarah Nolan)

BC2 Nigel Murray

BC2 Joshua Rowe

BC2 Claire Taggart

BC3 Patrick Wilson (competition partner: Kim Smith)

BC3 Jamie McCowan (competition partner: Linda McCowan)

BC3 Scott McCowan (competition partner: Gary McCowan)

BC4 Stephen McGuire

BC4 Kieran Steer

BC4 Evie Edwards