Ciobanu, Dispaltro and Levine each qualify for quarter finals at the Boccia World Open

Seoul, South Korea (July 22, 2015) – Iulian Ciobanu (Chisinau, Moldova), Marco Dispaltro (St. Jérôme, QC) and Alison Levine (Montréal, QC) each qualified for the quarter finals in individual play at the fourth day of competition at the second Boccia World Open of 2015 in Seoul, Korea. Dispaltro and Ciobanu took one win each while Levine faltered to China’s Yuansen Zheng.

World Number One Dispaltro achieved a solid 6-0 score over Richard Duray of the Netherlands to finish first in his pool. Ciobanu, at his first international competition, played a close match taking the win of 5-4 over Fujii Kintaro of Japan, placing second in his pool. Ciobanu says, “I’m very proud to be among to top eight BC4 athletes in this competition. Three wins to a gold medal. I am also proud of my team, all three of whom managed to qualify for the quarter finals. I am so pleased to have this opportunity to represent Canada.”

Levine, who garnered a silver medal at the 2015 Boccia World Open of Poznan, Poland also finished second in her pool after losing to Zheng 5-2. Of Levine’s match, coach César Nicolai says, “A hard fought match betweem Alison and former World Number One Zheng. There was quite a bit of tension throughout with solid decision making by both players. In the third and fourth end, Zheng threw two pushes with his sixth, and final, ball alllowing him to kiss the jack and finish the game with a score of 5-2.”