Yushae DeSilva-Andrade on course to progress after big boccia win in Brazil
Yushae DeSilva-Andrade enhanced her chances of securing a place in the quarter-finals of the Boccia World Championships after clinching a comfortable victory on the second day of competition in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
After narrowly missing out on causing a major upset when suffering a 5-2 opening day defeat in a valiant display against World No.1 Andreza Vitoira Oliveira from the host nation, the 28-year-old knew there was little room for further setbacks in her remaining group games.
Yet there was little sign of any lingering nerves as despite falling a point behind after the first of four ends against World No.6 Kinga Koza, of Poland, DeSilva-Andrade responded in fine style, battling back to brush aside her opponent in a 5-1 victory.
It means another win against Czech Republic's Katerina Curinova on Thursday would guarantee her a place in the quarter-finals as one of the top-two finishers within the group.
“it was an excellent performance from Yushae to beat the World No.6, which is great,” said coach Troy Farnsworth. “It wasn’t just about getting the victory, it was about the manner in which she played, her composure, decision making and overall game management was really impressive.
“She went down after the first end but managed to claw back four points in the next two ends and had a three-shot buffer going into the final end.
“The plan at that stage was to just throw the jack short because we know how accurate Yushae is and it would be incredibly hard for her opponent to get three points at that stage to tie the game. Yusahe went short and managed to win the point to go 5-1 up.
“She will take a lot of confidence going into the match tomorrow. She has nothing to lose and she just needs to keep playing like she did today to hopefully progress through to the quarter-finals.”
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