Boccia makes its bow at London 2012

The London 2012 Paralympic boccia got under way on Sunday, a sport for disabled athletes that players say combines the tactics of chess and the precision of snooker.

Similar to boules, boccia is one of the few Paralympic sports with no Olympic equivalent, and the crowd at the ExCeL exhibition centre's South Arena 1 were soon getting into the action despite many having no prior knowledge of the game.

"Boccia is a tactical sport like chess, snooker and boxing rolled into one," said Ireland's Padraic Moran, following a 17-3 defeat in the team event to world number one South Korea.

"So you don't really play boccia, you play a mixture of other games. That's why it's a difficult game and such a good sport," he told AFP.

"And this is the best job in the world to have," he added.

Boccia players throw, kick or use a ramp to propel a ball from a seated position so that it lands as close as possible to the "jack" target ball.

The leather balls containing plastic granules are designed to roll, although skilful players can make them bounce.

In each "end" in the match, the winning side scores one point for each ball they got closer to the jack than their opponents.

All seven medal events are mixed gender and feature individuals, pairs or teams.

There are four classifications of ability, the first three for athletes with cerebral palsy.

Salome Stokes, 20, a student from Shropshire in western England, was among those watching the sport for the first time.

"I've never seen anything like that," she told AFP.

"We thought we would make a point of coming to see this and find out a bit more about it. It's nice to support something that's unique to the Paralympics.

"Once I understood what was going on, and the scoring, I really got into it."

The Czech Republic earned the first victory of the 2012 Games, beating Hong Kong 6-5 in the BC4 pairs.

Defending champions Great Britain beat Argentina 8-4 in the BC1-2 team contest in a pool match that was at 4-4 going into the sixth and final end.

"That game was a really good advert for our sport," Britain's captain Nigel Murray told AFP.

"The Argentinian kicker has got incredible control and I think David Beckham would be proud of some of the things he can do with his foot.

"What you've got to do in boccia is put your opponents immediately under pressure. People could see the tactical side of the game.

"People started to get into the game applauding and cheering and that's what we want.

"The good thing about boccia is you can pick it up quite easily. In excess of 40 countries play it."

Team-mate Zoe Robinson, 22, added: "It's amazing to be here after all these hard years of training and to come back and to try and defend our title is just brilliant.

"It means everything."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boccia-makes-bow-london-2012-141911940--oly.html

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