Special Olympics St Vincent and the Grenadines (SOSVG), athletes Utica Smith and Natasha Doyle participated in the Inaugural Regional Caribbean Bocce Competition, hosted by Special Olympics Cayman Islands from May 22 to 26.
Smith obtained two gold.
She first captured gold when she defeated Aruba in a close match (7-6), which she said was done with “hard work and by focusing on the game which was close” but she was determined to win.
She later teamed up with partner Doyle to take gold in Division 1 Doubles with a score of 13-6.
Doyle placed 4th in the singles after an 8-7 defeat from Bahamas in the third-place playoff.
Smith and Doyle last competed as a Bocce team at World Games 2015, in Los Angeles, California.
The team was coached by Helen Ashton, who said, the duo played “very well”.
Ashton said that the athletes had a bit of challenges in terms of the strong opponents but were able to stay focused in the doubles, work together, concentrate, move forward and achieve the aim of getting a gold
Athletes from 17 countries around the region and the United Stated competed in the Singles and Doubles Competitions.