This weekend (26 & 27 February), 61 athletes competed across two days of exciting competition at the Back to Boccia Open: North at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield.

On Saturday the BC1, BC2, BC3 and BC4 athletes took to the court taking part in a set of closely contested pool matches, semi-finals, bronze medal play-offs, and finals.

The medalists were:

BC1

Gold: Richard Armstrong

Silver: Jabe Peake

Bronze: Caroline Robinson

    

  

BC2

Gold: Jason Rolph

Silver: Rachel Ross

Bronze: Stephen Miller

    

   

BC3

Gold: Rafael Young

Silver: Cecilia Turk

Bronze: Lee Maddison

    

   

BC4

Gold: Penny Froude

Silver: Harley Creswick

 

  

On Sunday, it was the turn of the BC5, BC6, and BC8 athletes. We were also joined by a cohort of newly qualified boccia referees who had taken part in the Level 1 Award in Officiating earlier in the month. 

The medalists were:

BC5

Gold: Gabriella Rolls

Silver: Harry Poxon

Bronze: Amy Darlow

    

 

BC6

Gold: Connor Dixon

Silver: Nick Brown

Bronze: Jack Wilding

    

 

BC8

Gold: Neil Pitchford

Silver: Sophie Coyne

Bronze: Nathan Smith

    

 

Please see our competition results page for the full results from both days of competition.

 

Thank you to all the volunteer officials, time-keepers, event assistants and classifiers who gave their time to make this competition weekend possible. We were pleased to be joined by time-keeping volunteers from University of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University, and Rotary Sheffield.

            

 

On Saturday we were pleased to host guests from organisations that have supported Boccia England – Catena, KOI Sports CIC, Let’s Sanify, and Busy Life. This was the first time any of them had seen boccia played in real life and they all left inspired by the sport and very impressed with the skill and talent on display.

 

     

We are only able to hold events like this because of generous funding from organisations and individuals who are passionate about providing inclusive sporting opportunities for disabled people. If you would like to donate to support our work, please see our website.