Dispaltro, Levine and Vietnieks waste no time on the first day of the Boccia World Open in Poznan, Poland

Poznan, Poland (June 17, 2015) – The Canadian BC4 Pairs opened the competition with a resounding 7-0 victory over Slovenia on the first day of competition at the Boccia World Open in Poznan, Poland.

Led by BC4 Coach Cesar Nicolai, the Pairs team of world number one Marco Dispaltro (St. Jerome, QC), Caroline Vietnieks (Burnaby, BC) and CIBC Team Next member Alison Levine (Montreal, QC) put in a solid and consistent performance throughout the match to put away their opponents. “Our score was great today, but it was just a warm-up,” said Levine. “We will do better and be stronger tomorrow.”

Today the Canadian BC4 athletes were finally able to test the Poznan courts in competition mode,” added Nicolai. They played a solid match and the experience and consistency gained from the many hours of training over the past months allowed them to win their match without conceding a single point. Tomorrow is another day and we will have to raise our level of play to finish first in our division and then progress as far as possible in the final matches. The rest of the competition will be tougher, but I have no doubt about the group’s abilities. They have what it takes, both for this competition and for the 2015 Parapan American Games in Toronto next August.”

Slovenia then fell to Greece by a score of 3-5. In their final group game, Canada will face Greece tomorrow.