Yushae DeSilva Andrade is poised to make her second Paralympic Games appearance in Paris next year with her qualification all but confirmed.

The 30-year-old has enjoyed a sensational year of competition, including producing one of the most stunning performances of her career to win gold at the World Boccia Cup in September when beating world No 1 Andreza Vitória De Oliveira en route to the final, as well as clinching silver at the Parapan Am Games last month.

Those endeavours have seen DeSilva-Andrade climb to fourth in the latest BISFed Boccia individual world rankings ahead of the official cut-off point on Sunday, all but cementing her chances of returning to the Paralympics after representing the island at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

With Brazil’s De Oliveira and Thailand’s Satanan Phromsiri, first and third respectively in the rankings, already earning their places in Paris within the 12 slots allocated to countries in the team competitions, DeSilva-Andrade finds herself in one of the two remaining individual qualification places along with world No 2 Yee Ting Jeralyn Tan, of Singapore.

“The world rankings were adjusted after the Parapan Am Games with Yushae moving up to fourth and crucially leapfrogging above Croatia’s Dora Basic, who was in one of the remaining qualification positions,” said national coach Troy Farnsworth.

“From what I can see from the qualification guidelines it certainly looks like she is in line to earn a slot in Paris, although we haven’t got the official word as yet.

“With Yushae being in one of the two qualification places she should definitely be going to the Paralympics, which is great news.

“It would be absolutely fantastic for her to go. It’s a long four years between getting a chance to go to the Paralympics and so it would amazing.”

As things stand, DeSilva Andrade may not be the only boccia player representing the island in Paris with compatriot Omar Hayward remaining in contention to be given one of the additional 24 Bipartite Invitation Allocation spots

Having narrowly missed out on a bronze medal at the Parapan Am Games, losing 4-3 to Brazilian José Carlos Chagas de Oliveira, Hayward finds himself in thirteenth place in the men’s rankings.

While that leaves him outside of automatic qualification, Farnsworth remains confident of successfully applying for a bipartite slot.

“The bipartite slots are looked at on criteria including previous results in competition as well as what region the athlete is from with focus on if they are developing nation,” added Farnsworth, who reflected on what it would mean to have both athletes earn a place in Paris.

“We wouldn’t apply for that until May, so much closer to the Games in August, but Omar has kept his position at thirteenth and so definitely stands a good chance of getting a bipartite slot.

“It’s been a long road from 2016 when Yushae last went and we had the belief then that we could have more than just one Bermudian player going to a Paralympic Games.

“Due to Covid and various other factors we missed out on Tokyo last time out which was disappointing, but I certainly still had the belief that both were good enough to make another Paralympic Games.

“Competition is getting harder every year and so you can’t take it for granted that anyone will just qualify for the Games. It takes a lot of hard work and a lot of strong performances in competitions.

“There has been a lot of chipping away at that long-term goal and so it would be amazing and a great reward for their hard work and dedication, as well as for all of the support from behind the scenes.

“I think they both deserve to be there. They’ve shown that they can be beat high-ranked players and so they’ve proven they can compete at the highest level.”