Singapore’s Jeralyn Tan clinches historic boccia silver medal at Paris Paralympics

SINGAPORE: Jeralyn Tan clinched a historic boccia silver for Singapore at the Paris Paralympics on Monday (Sep 2), the country’s very first medal in the sport.
The 35-year-old world number 2 lost to home favourite Aurelie Aubert 4-5 in the women’s individual BC1 final.
But she nevertheless becomes only Singapore’s fourth Paralympic medallist, joining swimmers Yip Pin Xiu, Theresa Goh and equestrian Laurentia Tan in the history books.
On the way to the final, Tan had beaten Aubert 6-1 in the preliminary pool round, but the French world number 16 turned things around in the final.
Speaking to CNA after the match, Tan said, “Thanks for all the supporters to cheer me up, and also, I did like work hard, very best already, but I will come back and go for it again.”
Boccia, which means to bowl in Italian, is a target ball sport played by athletes in wheelchairs.
Players are required to throw or release balls towards a white target ball called a jack, and the aim is to land their ball as close as possible to the target or to knock the opponent’s ball out of the way.
Each player takes their turn to do this, and at the end of each round, the athlete whose ball is the closest to the jack scores one point.
He or she also receives an additional point for every ball that sits closer to the jack than their opponent’s closest ball.
At the end of four rounds, the person with the most points wins.
In Monday’s final, Aubert came storming out of the blocks with a near-invulnerable 5-0 lead after two rounds.
But Tan mounted a valiant comeback, making it 5-3 after the third round. In the fourth and final round, she needed two points to force a tie but threw her ball wide in a decisive play.
It rendered her one point short of the necessary and she took silver – while her French opponent was left in tears of joy at being crowned champion.
Tan had earlier topped Pool B after victories over Aubert and Spain’s Amagoia Arrieta (5-1).
She beat Brazil’s world number 1 Andreza Oliveira 7-5 in the quarter-finals on Sunday before a 5-1 win over Japan’s Hiromi Endo 5-1 in the semi-finals.
Tan started playing boccia in 2008 when she picked up the sport as a student at the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore (CPAS) School.
Since then, she has represented Singapore at the ASEAN Para Games and world championships. Last year, she took silver at the ASEAN Para Games in the women’s BC1 event.
Catch Team Singapore at the Paralympic Games Paris 2024 live and on-demand on mewatch for free at mewatch.sg/paris2024.