GOLD!!!!!!!!!!

Howdy folks, how are we doing on this fine Wednesday??  I’m doing excellent!  For those who have been wondering about how Boccia Blast went this past weekend, read on!  Friday Oct. 14th was Team/Pair games.  My team was London 1 which consist of Adam Dukovich, Dave VanHoek, and I.  We didn’t start out great as we weren’t really ready to play – everything was rushed and a messed lol.  Quebec kicked out butts, which was well deserved!!!!  Great playing Quebec!!!!!  Our next 2 games were better and we won both.  There were only 4 teams, so we ended up with 2nd place.  I played good for us, so it was a good start for me at the tournament.

I was lucky enough to not have a game on Saturday, so I stayed home, relaxed and got caught up on some of my tv shows lol.  We had a dinner at the hotel though, so my best friend Tara and I went to that…then went shopping

Sunday was my big day!  Three games for pool play, but I knew that I was going to be one of the top 2 in my pool to advance to semi finals, which gives me 5 games in total!!!!!  I was excited to have all 5 games on that one day…I could get into a rhythm and get ‘er done!!!!!!!  First up was Tom from London Cannonballs…won 18-0.  Next was Jamie another teammate of mine from London Cannonballs…won 14-0.  Last “pool” game was with Francois from Quebec and fellow Canadian teammate…this game was excellent – Francois ended up being the winner 4-3.  Well deserved win Frank!!!!!!   This loss made me 2nd in my pool.  Strategically, this couldn’t worked out better for me  We were Pool B…in Pool A, Dave from Quebec came out 1st with Adam being 2nd!  Now that I came out 2nd, I was going on to play Dave in semi finals with Francois playing Adam!!!!!!  My game with Dave was tensed – I was down 3-0 going into 3rd end – so I had to changed my strategy and I went short.  I came out of 3rd end with scoring 2 points which made it 2-3 for him going into the last end.  He decided to go long, which I was happy about.  Make the best person win.  I ended up scoring my two points that I needed to win the game 4-3!  There were some tensed moments after the game concerning the ref and measuring in 3rd end with me scoring two, and talks about a protest from my opponent, but head ref cleared everything up.  So onto the final game I go!!!!!!!  I didn’t care who I was getting to play – Francois or Adam.  I was confident in myself that I was going to win.  Francois ended up being the winner against Adam, so final game was me and Frank.  It was a good game – I kept my focus on one ball at a time.  I was red, so I had the Jack first (I was red the whole day actually and I went long with my Jacks except for once in my game  against Dave where I went short for one end).  I scored 2 points in the 1st end.  Francois came back in 2nd with scoring 2 points.  It was a new game going into the 3rd end.  I wanted to jumped ahead of him at this point, so I managed to score 3 points in that end making it 5-2 going into the last end!!!!  Francois missed his 1st ball which gave me an opportunity to sealed the deal by kissing the Jack, and I took him up on that opportunity!!!!!  Nailed my 1st ball perfectly!!!!!!  He couldn’t do much with it, but he did end up hitting the Jack on his last ball to moved it closer to his blue ball that he had right behind the Jack to sit with scoring 1 point.  I didn’t really care about the 1 point, because I had won the game which is all I needed.  So I threw all my 5 balls away.  Final score was 5-3 for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!  GOLD BABY!!!!!!!!!   Thanks to my parents and my best friend!!!!!!!!!  They were there the whole way and gave me the encouragement and motivation that I needed!!!!!!  Also, thanks to my close friend Celina for surprising me and coming in at the perfect time to see me win the gold medal!!!!!!

I am proud to say that this is my first major gold medal since my new style of play (underhand), beside from my gold medal from 2011 Regionals that was held in London.  However, this is bigger because it is a Canadian event.  :-)  So all in all, the 2011 Boccia Blast was a great tournament for me!!!!

The important thing about it is as Monique said, I have broke through the mental barrier and proved to MYSELF that I am ready to finish first!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The next big tournament for me is the 2012 Canadian Boccia Championships which are being held in BC (Surrey I believe) in March (March 6th-10th I believe).  So for now, I am just taking it easy and practicing 2-3 times a week.  We have some Team Ontario training camps coming up with one being on Oct. 29th.

Keep posted for updates and news…….

Back At It….

Today was my first practice since I played my last game at World Cup, which was on August 24th!!!!  I was a little worried that I might be rusty, but I impressed myself!  You wouldn’t even know that I haven’t played in over a month the way that I played today

It was supposed to be the 3 of us (Brock, Adam, & I) plus our coach Ed, but it turned out to be only Adam and I.  So Katie (assistant coach for Team Ontario and Mike (a head ref) came out to give us a hand and played with us.  Katie & Mike took turns playing us – I had Katie first – played 2 games – won 8-0 and 6-0.  I got 2 snowman’s in one game  A snowman is when the ball that is thrown ends up on top of the Jack or other ball.  Mike was more challenging – he won 4-2 in first game, but in our second game I came back in last end from being down 5-0 to win 6-5!!!!!!!!!  :-D  This shows you that a game is never over until the last ball is thrown – that’s one thing that I like about boccia…the score can change in a second!

After that, we played a Team game – Adam and I vs Katie and Mike.  Adam and I played great with making good shots – we won 7-3.

I must say that I was quite impressed with how I played!  It only shows you how mental preparation is an important aspect of the game as well.  Imagery is a great tool when used correctly  Thanks to my sport psychologist for this!

Boccia Blast (an annual tournament hosted by my local club) is coming up on Oct. 14th-16th, and I can’t wait to play.

Keep turned…..

Official Rankings…

Today, the updated World Rankings were posted.  In Team, Canada is officially ranked 10th (out of 35 teams)!!!!!!!!!  We were 11th before going into World Cup, so we have managed to move up 1 spot  :-)  You have to be in the top 12 to qualify for the Paralympics.  So it is official, we have qualified Canada to compete at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, England.

As for me individually, my official world ranking is 57th (out of 101 BC2′s).  Taking the 2 years off after the 2008 Paralympics and not making it on the team last year really screwed me – oh and my results at the World Cup did also  But like I have said before, it is what it is and I can’t do nothing to change it, so I just have to move on.

If you would like to see where my fellow Canadian teammates are on the world rankings, you can check it out by clicking on this link:  http://www.cpisra.org/bocrank/2011-09-13/index.htm

I haven’t gone back to practice yet, but I am hoping to real soon!!  I am hoping to start back on Sept. 21st.  It all depends on if I have someone to go with me to help me.  I’m working on it

Anyway, thought that I would share this little update with you all!  More to come soon……

Two photos that were taken while we were at Humber College

Adam and I with two of NBL players Tyrone Levett and Jarell Pennyamon at Humber College in Toronto - it was so awesome to meet you guys!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adam and I with NBL player Jarell Pennyamon

Congratulations to Marco!

Hey folks, sorry for leaving you hanging.  Let me tell you about our last day at World Cup.  So like I said in my last post, I was done.  Friday was playoffs and only two members of the Canadian Team advanced out of their pools…in BC2 Adam Dukovich and in BC4 Marco Dispaltro.  Adam played a guy from Japan in the 1/16 final- he played awesome but wasn’t able to overcome the tough competitor – final score was 9-1.  Marco was on fire that day – he had the number 1 ranked player from Brazil first in the 1/8 final – he’d crushed him 4-2!  He moved on and played a tough Thailand competitor in the 1/4 final – crushed him as well 7-2.  Then he moved on to the semi final against a Portugal competitor – no problem – got him 7-1.  Gold medal game, here he went!!  He faced the other tough Brazilian – what a match this was!!!!!!!!!!  Everyone was on the edge of their seats!!!!!!  Final score was 3-2 for the Brazilian athlete.  SILVER BABY!!!!!!!!!  Marco won silver – not bad for being a rookie and for his first big international boccia event!!!!!!!!!!  Congratulations Marco!!!!!!!  I am so proud of you and it was amazing to be there to cheer you on and watch you dominate the world!!!!!!!!  You deserve this!!!!!!!!!

On the Saturday August 27th, we headed home  I was so glad to be heading home.  It was a long day, but everything went somewhat smoothly and we got home safe and sound.  It was so good to get home to my cats and family

I had enjoyed myself in Belfast, but I wish that I have had done better in individual.  My final placing is 40th out of 55 BC2′s athletes.  Not what I planned, but it is in the past now and we have to move on

As for the Team, we finished 8th out of 21 teams which is good and we did our job – we have qualified Canada for the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, England.  The BC3 Pairs and the BC4 Pairs also qualified!!!!!  So Canada can send a full team finally!!!!!!  9 athletes will be selected to be on the boccia team to represent Canada at the Games.

Since I have been home, I have been resting and taking time off from training.  I am now starting to get back into the swing of things.  I will be going back to training in a couple of weeks.  I got news that I am not going to Mexico for the ParaPan American Games in November, so instead, I am now going to be focusing on two important events that we have in Canada that we have coming up.  First is Boccia Blast which in held in my hometown of London on Oct. 14th-16th, 2011.  Then the Canadian Boccia Championships in March which are being held in BC.  Both of these are important as I can get selected to be on the Canadian team for 2012 going to the Paralympics.  There is Defi Sportif at the end of April as well, but I will crossed these two tournaments first then focus on that one.  I also got news today that I won’t be able to play individually at the Paralympics as I didn’t ranked high enough on the world rankings (long story!)…so now I can only focus on making the team to go play Team.  Of course I bummed out about this, but it is what it is and I can’t change it – so move on

Anyway, I’m tired so I’m heading to bed.  Thank you again for all of you who takes the time to read my blogs!  I truly appreciate all of your love and support!!!!!  Please stay tune for more great things to come…..

Good try…

Today I woke up optimist.  I had to play the waiting game…to find out if I’d made it through to the next round or not.  I had a relaxing morning….went and cheered on fellow teammates, took some pictures, and bought some souveniers.  For lunch, Rita and I are so sick of the lunches that they provided, so we went to one of the university resturants and had yummy panini’s.  It was the best lunch we had here!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We then went back to gym and watched Adam kick butt against Fiona Lyons from Australia.  After that, I found out that I wasn’t going to be moving on.  I was a little disappointed, but I am proud of myself for not giving up..I AM A MCLEOD, AND MCLEOD’S DON’T GIVE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Plus, I am a TIGER and I fight till the end!!!!!!!!!!!!

We watched some more games then we came back to our room and relaxed before dinner.  We went to dinner, but I didn’t eat much because my body is getting sooooooooooo sick of everything.  We came back to the rooms for a bit then Rita, Trish, Keven, and I decided to go for a scroll down to the Irish Bay.  We took some cool pictures…to be posted at a later date due to Rita’s crappy card for her camera lol.  We found a cool playground and decided to be kids again and go play   It was so much fun!!!!!!!  Again, pictures will be posted later due to Rita’s crappy card LOL!!!!!!!!!!

So yes, I am done!  It was a great ride.  Now we will cheer on our 2 teammates that have moved on to the next round.  Adam plays a guy from Japan and Marco plays a guy from Brazil.  Both will be great games!!!!!

Now it is time for bed!  I can’t wait to go home now   I will try to do a blog tomorrow night to give you one last update.  I just want to say thank you all so much for all of your support and encouragement through my time here at the World Cup!!!!!  I love you all!

Goodnight

 

I am on an emtional rollercoaster…

Sorry for not blogging last night!!!  Yesterday was a difficult day for me.  I had two games yesterday.  My first game was against my fellow Canadian teammate Adam Dukovich…I played awesome…it was a tight game as usual!  We went into OT and I wasn’t able to pull out the win.  Congrats to Adam though!!!  It was an awesome game!  Final score was 3-3 but Adam won the tie break.  My second game was against Fiona Lyons from Australia.  It was a heartbreaker for me because I should’ve had won it.  It wasn’t a good game for me at all.  I missed a few key shots in the 2nd end and gave up 5 points.  Then I lost my Jack in 4th end as it didn’t crossed the V line.  Final score was 6-2.  I was not a happy camper after that one.  However, I needed to find a way to get into a better mindset for today and put that game behind me!

Yesterday made me so determined to bounced back and show the world what I am made of!  The Tiger came right out of its cage today let me tell ya!!!!!!!!!!  I knew going into today that I needed to win both games in order for me to have any hope of moving into the top 32.  Everyone supported and encouraged me before my 1st game which was at 9am.  I also received messages from home that also helped me get into the right mindset…keep cheering because it really helps me   Our Head Coach Mario went into the Call Room with me and give me a pep talk which I needed.  I was ready to fight!!!!!!!!!!  My first game was against Jakob from Czech Republic.  I took my time and took one ball at a time!!!!  The Tiger roared a few times and got me pumped up!!!!!!  I was so focused – people said that I had scary eyes haha!  I played awesome and came away with a victory!!!!!!  Final score was 4-1.

After that game, I was so ready to fight again!!!!!!!!  I had to wait until 1pm to play again.  My second game was against Roberta Connley from Ireland.  I knew that it was going to be a good game.  But the Tiger was ready to come out again!!!!!!!!  It was an AWESOME game!!!!!!  I was leading 6-0 going into the 3rd end.  Yes a big lead, but you can’t called it a day with a lead like that at this level!!!  Roberta nailed her Jack in the 3rd end, so I decided to blocked it really well which  I succeeded in doing, and I wanted to put one ball right behind the Jack so that if she decided to lob and hit the Jack back, I will have a ball there to take the lobbing option away from her…but my ball went to far behind.  Guess what she did??  You guessed it…lobbed it and hit the Jack back to opened it up for herself.  She had 4 more balls.  And yes she scored all 4.  So it was 6-4 for me going into last end.  I put my Jack about 5 meters on my side (blue).  I didn’t nailed the Jack but was in front.  Anyway, that end we were ball for ball pretty much.  She was scoring one point with me having no more balls yet.  I had a blue ball in front pretty close.  She had one more ball.  Guess what happened????  She managed to squeezed though to score another point…so OT we go!!!!!!  I let her choose for the coin toss to see who would go first, and luckly she won and got to go first…and luckly she didn’t nailed the Jack.  It was ball for ball for a couple of balls until I put a ball in there :-)  I was praying to God after that shot as she still had like 3 balls left.  My ball was in a great spot and made it hard for her to get closer.  I thought she had done it on her last ball, but I went to looked and saw that my ball was scoring and I let out a big roar then all the Canadians roared too haha!!!  I was sooooooo relieved and emtional.  I still had two more balls, so I went back into my box and tried to calm down to throw away them haha!  I am so proud of myself for bouncing back today and winning my 2 games!!!!!!  I played AWESOME!!!!!!  I did my job…now I sit and wait to see if I am moving on into the top 32.  It was a GREAT day!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have tomorrow off.  I will find out tomorrow if I am moving on.  I’ll keep you all updated!  Keep cheering   Missing you all!

Goodnight….

Ready to Roar!

I forgot to mentioned in my blog last night that the BC1-BC2 Team’s record was 4 wins and 2 loses.  Not bad at all!!!!!! 

Today is the start of individual play.  I play Adam at 12:20pm then Fiona Lyons from Australia at 2:30pm.

LETS DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Team Canada Rocks…

Today was somewhat a good day for Canada.  We played our last game of our pool vs South Africa this morning and won 8-1.  We were hoping for more points, but they were one ball wonders and got one good ball in there.  We finished 2nd in our pool, so we went on to played in the quarter finals vs GB!  The final score was 9-0 for GB, however the score doesn’t effect on how we played.  The most that they got in an end was 2 points, and we didn’t make it easy for them.  They made great shots!!  I played great in that game, which I’m happy about   So, Team finished 8th   We needed to finished top 8th here in order to qualify for the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, England, and we are confident that we have done that   We will hopefully have the offical word about it soon!

The BC3′s pairs played awesome!!  They made it to the bronze medal game vs Portugal, but came short – the final score was 4-3.  They finished 4th!!!!!!!

The BC4′s pairs also played awesome and made it to the bronze medal game vs Czech Republic – the final score was 8-3 for the Czech.  They also finished 4th!!!!!

So all in all, Team Canada did well!!!!!!!!!!!!  And it is looking good for a full team to go to London, England for the 2012 Paralympic Games!  I can’t wait to get the offical word!

Individual play starts tomorrow!  I can’t wait!!  But it kinda sucks though because Adam and I are in the same pool, however on the positive side of it, two people moves on, so we just have to be 1st and 2nd in our pool   That’s our plan!

Anyway, bed time!!!!!!!!!! Keep on cheering!!!!!!!!!!!  LETS DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Missing you all at home

Awesome First Day…

The Tiger (Me), Rocket (Francois), Shooter (Keven), A-bomb (Adam), and Magic Man (Brock) all did thier thing today on the court!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    It was an exciting day for us!  We had Norway first…final score was 7-3 for us!  I played awesome in that game especially in the 5th end where I made 2 amazing shots to give us 4 points in that end!!!!!  I played the entire game.  Second game we had Spain…final score was 11-1 for them   However, we made good shots and kept it close through 3 ends.  I came out going into the 5th end for stragery purpose, but it didn’t go our way.  Oh well.  We put that game in the garbage and focused on our 3rd game and last game of the day against Slovenia.  The final score of that one was 7-1.  Then we had an amazing Irish dinner with entertainment – we got up and danced lol – it was fun!    Came back to the room, got some physio done, andd now getting ready to go to bed as we have a 9am game tomorrow against South Africa.  6am comes early!!!!!!!!!

So good night folks…GO CANADA GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  LETS KEEP ROARINGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!