Yushae DeSilva-Andrade yesterday suffered an agonising defeat in the quarter-finals of the World Boccia Championships in Brazil.

In the tightest of matches, DeSilva-Andrade was beaten 3-2 by the world No.2 Dora Basic, despite both players winning two ends apiece in the four-end match.

DeSilva-Andrade, who had made it to the knockout stages for the first time in her career, made a dream start to the quarter-finals when winning the first end 1-0 but her Croatian opponent fought back strongly to take a 3-1 lead into the fourth and final end.

Refusing to buckle under pressure, DeSilva-Andrade gave it everything but was able to win the end only 1-0 to lose the match by the slimmest of margins 3-2.

Coach Troy Farnsworth was naturally disappointed but remains proud of DeSilva-Andrade’s performance.

“Yushae had a chance at the end to tie the game up but unfortunately just couldn’t get the extra point needed in the last end to send the match into a tie-break, but overall it was a brilliant performance,” Farnsworth said.

“She came into this ranked 23 in the world and played the number one and number two player and she pushed them both all the way. Losing by just one point against the world number two shows that she can compete with the world’s best.

“She can take a lot of confidence from making it as far as she did in this competition. We’ve got the Para Pan-American games next year and a couple of other competitions as we work towards the Paralympics in 2024.

“This perfomance will give catapult her up the world rankings and put her in a good position going into competitions next year. I’m really proud of her and she’s done really well.”