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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Matt Majendie

Tokyo Paralympics: David Smith fights back to win boccia gold

After coming through his Paralympic boccia semi-final, David Smith insisted he had only come to Tokyo for gold.

And for the third time in his career, Britain’s most successful boccia player took the gold in a stunning fightback against Paralympic debutant Chew Wei Lun.

Smith had bristled from a poor start which saw his Malaysian opponent take a 2-0 lead after the first end.

But in his fourth Paralympic Games, his experience showed as he piled the pressure on his opponent to eventually take the win 4-2 on the fourth and final end.

Smith, who boasts a degree in aerospace engineering degree, got a point back on end two and made the scores level going into the finale with his final throw of the third end.

A great fifth ball on the final end moved him into the ascendancy and a rare error by his less experienced opponent ensured his final throw was not needed to give him the gold with a throw to spare.

It marked a 30th Paralympic gold for Team GB in Japan and proved an emotional one for the 2016 individual champion in Smith, who burst into tears in the aftermath.

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