There will be four more medals up for grabs at the Hangzhou Asian Para Games than there were in Jakarta as the Individual Competition is now split into Male and Female categories, giving a total of 11 events.
At the 2022 Boccia World Championships in Rio, Asian athletes won a total of 12 medals out of the 33 on offer showing that Asia is strong in this sport.
At the last Asian Para Games in Jakarta, Thailand topped the Boccia medal table, winning three of the seven gold medals on offer and seven medals in total, with China in second place with two gold medals. Third placed Republic of Korea won a total of seven medals and will be hoping to convert some of the silver and gold medals into gold this time around.
Ones to watch include Thailand’s Witsanu HUADPRADIT who is the reigning world champion in the BC1 Male event and who will be looking to defend the Asian Para Games crown that he won in Jakarta. In the new Female events at last year’s World Championships Asian athletes took bronze in all the individual events so watch out for Yuriko FUJII from Japan (BC1 Female), Soyeong JEONG from Republic of Korea (BC2 female), Yuen KEI HO (BC3 female) and Yuen CHEUNG (BC4 Female) both from Hong who will be the ones to beat in these events.
Hong Kong’s BC3 Pairs and Japan’s BC1/2 Team will also head to Hangzhou as world champions but with Thailand coming second to Hong Kong in the BC3 Pairs and South Korea picking up the bronze in the BC1/2 Teams event, the standard of competition will be high at the Hangzhou Gymnasium.
