The last World Open of the 2019 season was a crucial competition for those vying for Tokyo 2020 qualification.
Canada’s BC4 pairs (Alison Levine, Marco Dispaltro and Iulian Ciobanu) ranked 10th at the beginning of the competition guaranteed their qualification to Tokyo by defeating the number ranked 1 team from Slovakia in the final and winning gold.
The gold medal for the local BC3 pairs team from Portugal (Avelino Andrade, José Macedo and Ana Costa) ranked 17th in the world was the only result possible if they were going to qualify for Tokyo. And they pulled off just that with a magnificent performance in the final against Hong Kong (ranked 2nd) with a narrow win of 3×2.
In addition to the spectacular competition, local organizers PCAND put in place a wonderful sustainability initiative by providing re-usable bottles to all participants and water stations all around the venue. They estimate they have eliminated the use of 2100 single use plastic bottles. Planet earth thanks you!
BISFed congratulates all participants, Tokyo 2020 qualifiers, officials and the local organizers staff and volunteers. See you all in Póvoa de Varzim again next year!
