Brazil win Paralympic boccia gold, silver in Rome
Brazilian duo Matheus Carvalho and Evelyn Oliveira won the gold medal Tuesday (Sep 13) in the BC3 pairs competition at the Rome 2022 World Boccia Challenger. Under BC3, athletes use auxiliary instruments and can be helped by another person.
On the last day of the tournament, trio Iuri Tauan, Andreza Vitória, and Maciel Santos also took silver in the BC1/BC2 team competition. In this class, athletes play with their hands or feet, and may have an assistant to give them the balls—which does not occur in the BC2 class, in which no help is allowed.
Brazil’s delegation wraps up its participation in Rome with five medals. In the individual competitions on Monday, Matheus Carvalho and Andreza Vitória de Oliveira won silver, and Evelyn Oliveira bronze.
“This competition here in Italy was almost a pre-world championship considering the level of the countries and the number of athletes. This gold medal gives us a boost to go in pursuit of two more golds: one in Bahrain and another in the world championship,” said Matheus Carvalho, champion in the doubles event alongside gold medalist Evelyn Oliveira (gold medalist in Rio 2016). The duo beat Turkish (silver) and Thai (bronze) opponents in the BC3 class.
The Brazilian delegation traveled to Rome with ten athletes, and for some of them—classes BC1, BC2, and BC4—it was the last competition before the world championship in Rio de Janeiro. The calendar for the others still includes the world tournament stage in Bahrain, from November 4 through 12.
The World Paralympic Boccia Championship should bring together over 170 athletes from 40 countries from December 5 to 13 at the Olympic Park in Barra da Tijuca, Western Rio.
