Chinese boccia player Wang Yi made history as he overcame Padraic Moran of Ireland 6-5 in the quarterfinals of Mixed Individual BC1, becoming the first Chinese to enter the semifinals of this sport at Paralympic Games.
"I want a medal," the 45-year-old Wang said after the competition.
It was the first time for Chinese to participate in the Paralympic boccia competition and the team did not set a specific goal before making the Paralympic debut.
"We train systematically and regularly. We assembled for training more than one year before the Games," said Wang's coach Tian Jia'nan.
"It's not only about the competition, I think what's more important is that the players love the sport. They really put their hearts into it," he added.
Moran, ranked 10th in the World Cup in 2006, led rookie Wang 5-4 to hopefully go into the final end. But Moran, 24, was unable to register more points and Wang saved his best for last, scoring one point to tie 5-5 in the fourth end and got the decisive one point in the additional end to take the victory.
"It was a hard match for sure. It is the best result ever achieved by a Chinese boccia athlete in the Individual BC1 category and it gave us a chance to move on," Tian said.
"Wang showed good tactics in this match. I think it may have something to do with the Chinese chess."
"Tonight we will have a good sleep and hope for a wonderful match tomorrow," he added.
Wang will meet defending champion Joan Paulo Fernandes of Portugal in the semifinal on Tuesday.
Boccia is a ball tossing game where points are awarded for accuracy. It is played in 42 countries and regions and is governed by the International Boccia Committee (IBC), under the Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association.
The other two Chinese players Qi Cuifang and NiSuli were unable to go further as they were beaten by Jose Maria Dueso of Spain and Dirceu Pinto of Brazil in the BC4 quarterfinals.
In BC2 quarterfinals, world No. 1 Kwok Hoi-ying of Chinese Hong Kong made a solid show to breeze into the semifinals with a victory against defending champion Cristina Goncalves of Portugal 8-1, thus becoming the only female player in top four players of BC2.
Pablo Cortez of Argentina surprisingly beat the gold favorite Fernando Ferreira of Portugal in BC2 quarterfinals to go into the semifinals with Manuel Angel Martin of Spain and Migel Murray of Great Britain.
World No. 1 in BC3 and BC4 Grigorios Polychronidis of Greece and Leung Yuk-wing of Chinese Hong Kong also cruised into the semifinals.
Boccia competition, slated for Sept. 7-12 at the Beijing Paralympics, attracted 88 players including 62 men and 26 women from 20 countries and regions.
(Xinhua News Agency September 8, 2008)