Scotland enjoyed a very successful trip to Swansea for the 2022 UK Championships over the weekend. The team consisting of Kayleigh Haggo (BC2), Lewis McConnell (BC2), Scott McCowan (BC3), Jamie McCowan (BC3), Stephen McGuire (BC4), Tyler McLelland (BC4), Scott McIntyre (BC4) and Paul McIntyre, secured 4 medals and 23 match wins between them.
BC2 Round Up – History For Haggo
Kayleigh Haggo continued her meteoric rise in boccia by adding a silver medal at the UK Championships to go with the gold medal picked up at the Scottish Open. Kayleigh started strongly in the group stage picking up 3-1 and 9-4 wins over Rachel Ross and James Clowes respectively. The final group game was against world number 2 Claire Taggart which ended in an 11-0 defeat however Kayleigh still done enough to qualify for the semi-finals. Reshad Seraj awaited in the semi- finals and Kayleigh produced a brilliant final end comeback to come from 4-1 down to win 5-4. Claire Taggart was once again the opponent in a historic match-up as this was the first all-female final – subsequently officiated by an all-female team including Scottish referee Sam Thomson. Taggart made a strong start taking 5 points in the first end however Kayleigh regained her composure to win 2 of the remaining 3 ends, eventually succumbing to a 6-2 loss.
In further BC2 action Lewis McConnell had a strong weekend picking up a win over GB player Will Hipwell 6-4 and securing a 7-0 win over Sian Jones. Tight losses to Reshad Seraj and Jason Rolph ultimately ended Lewis’ competition at the group stage.
BC3 Round Up – Battle of the brothers
Scott and Jamie McCowan twice faced off against each other in a successful weekend for them both. In their opening encounter in the group stage Scott took the bragging rights with a 4-3 victory before easing through his remaining group games to qualify for the semi-finals. Jamie recovered from his defeat against Scott to win his remaining group games against Gareth Stafford, Cecilia Turk and Rafael Young to join his brother in the last 4. In semi-finals, both brothers had very close encounters that were delicately poised right until the end however Jamie overcame Will Arnott 3-2 while Scott defeated Sally Kidson 4-2. In a brilliant final it was Jamie who avenged his earlier loss and picked up the gold medal with a 5-2 win.
BC4 Round Up -Bronze for McGuire
Two all Scottish match-ups started off the competition in this section and they both displayed the best of Scottish boccia with excellent moments in both. Tyler McLelland overcame Scott McIntyre 6-3 while Stephen McGuire started off his weekend with a 7-1 victory against Paul McIntyre. Tyler and Scott found themselves in a tough group with eventual finalists Louis Saunders and Sophie Newman. Despite some good ends and brilliant shot making, they both came up short in the end meaning they both exited at the group stage. Paul McIntyre recovered from his opening loss to beat Harrison Smith 13-0 but then suffered an agonising 5-4 loss with final shots of the 4th end against Penny Froude. A 13-0 win against Tomas Martin was not enough to see Paul through to the last 4. Stephen enjoyed a successful group stage, progressing to the last 4 undefeated however in the semi-final an absolutely enthralling match saw him go down 3-2 to Sophie Newman. Stephen recovered in the bronze medal match with a 5-0 victory over Penny Froude to cap a brilliant weekend for the Scottish team.
Congratulations to all the athletes that took part over the weekend, and special thanks to the volunteers and officials as well as the staff from Boccia UK and Disability Sport Wales for hosting a brilliant event.
Photos courtesy of Claire Morrison
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