Paralympics: Singapore's Jeralyn Tan wins historic silver medal in boccia

SINGAPORE - Five thrilling days of competition ended with another brave performance and a silver lining for Singaporean boccia player Jeralyn Tan.

Despite a dramatic 5-4 defeat by Frenchwoman Aurelia Aubert in the women’s individual BC1 final on Sept 2, Jeralyn Tan still managed to claim a historic Paralympic silver for Singapore.

In doing so, the 35-year-old debutante became only the Republic’s fourth Paralympic medallist after swimmers Yip Pin Xiu and Theresa Goh, and equestrienne Laurentia Tan. Yip won two golds at these Games, taking her tally to seven, while Laurentia will compete from Sept 3.

Jeralyn’s silver from Paris will see her collect $300,000 as part of the Singapore National Paralympic Council’s Athletes Achievement Awards scheme. In 2022, the cash incentive for a Paralympic silver medal was raised from $200,000 to $300,000 for the Paris Games.

Boccia means “to bowl” in Italian. The aim of the game, played by wheelchair-using athletes with motor-skill impairment, is to bowl balls as close as possible to a white target ball known as the jack.

At the end of each of the four rounds for individual matches, the player whose ball is closest to the jack scores one point. He or she receives an additional point for every ball that sits nearer to the jack than the opponent’s closest ball.

World No. 2 Jeralyn, who has cerebral palsy, has been in superb form at these Paralympics.

At the South Paris Arena 1, she beat 16th-ranked Aubert 6-1 on Aug 29 and Spain’s eighth-ranked Amagoia Arrieta 5-1 on Aug 31 in the preliminary-round Pool B matches.

She then overcame Brazil’s world No. 1 Andreza Oliveira 7-5 in the quarter-finals later in the day and Japan’s sixth-ranked Hiromi Endo 5-1 on Sept 1 to reach the final. Endo beat Bermuda’s Yushae DeSilva-Andrade 7-0 to take the bronze.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.