Gold for Britain’s David Smith as he retains boccia Paralympic title

Britain has its 30th gold medal of the Tokyo Paralympic Games and it’s come courtesy of a remarkable comeback victory.

David Smith was staring a 2-0 deficit to Chew Wei Lun of Malaysia in the final of the boccia BC1 final but charged back to claim a 4-2 win. This gold is Smith’s fifth Paralympic medal and sees him overtake Nigel Murray as the country’s most successful athlete in the sport.

Boccia is a precision ball sport similar to bocce, bowls or petanque and sees athletes throw leather balls as close to a white target, or jack, as they can. It is one of just two sports - along with goalball, a team sport specifically for athletes with vision impairment - that have no Olympic counterpart.

According to the Guardian, Smith has been branded the ‘Lionel Messi’ of the sport, but he prefers to comparison with snooker champion Ronnie O’Sullivan.

“I like to be creative, I like to put on a show, I like to play well”, he said after his win. ““I prefer to win, so I get you could put me in that camp but I’m probably unlike Ronnie and more like [Cristiano] Ronaldo in that, if I have to dig it out I will.”