Canada Struggles on First Day of Competition at the BISFed World Open in Santiago de Cali, Colombia

Santiago de Cali, Colombia (October 31, 2015) – A challenging day for the BC1/BC2 Team, composed of Chris Halpen (Victoria, BC), Hanif Mawji (Burnaby, BC), Tammy McLeod (London, ON) and Adam Dukovich (Ottawa, ON) as well as the BC4 pair, made up of Alison Levine (Montréal, QC) and Marco Dispaltro (Montréal, QC) at the BISFed World Open in Santiago de Cali, Colombia. The BC1/BC2 Team lost their three matches of the day. They will play their final match today against Bermuda. The BC4s will not advance in pair competition.

The BC1/BC2 struggled to find solidarity and pull ahead of their competitors, faltering against the Netherlands with a score of (2-13), Slovakia with a score of (1-12) and Colombia with a score of (5-7). Of their face up against the Netherlands, McLeod says “we had some great moments in the game, but our opponents really capitalized on our gaps to pull in a high score.” This is a particularly difficult loss for the team that took a bronze medal on home soil at the Toronto 2015 Parapan American Games.

Characteristic of their partnership, which nabbed them and team member Iulian Ciobanu a gold medal at the 2015 BISFed World Open in Montréal earlier this year, Levine and Dispaltro drew on strategy and quick thinking to take two strong wins with a (10-0) score against Venezuela and a (6-0) score against Russia. Unfortunately, they couldn’t clinch a third win, faltering against Thailand with a score of (2-8).