British boccia player Penny Froude returns home from the Olbia Challenger with a confidence boost, having finished fourth in the BC4 category.

Having beaten the tournament’s fourth seed Natasa Bartol of Slovenia 4-3, she then lost to top seed Alexandra Szabo1-8 before a final pool match win over Renata Busettini of Italy 9-2. Into the semi-final, Froude lost to Anita Raguwaran of Germany 2-4 and missed out on bronze to Anamaria Arambasic 3-5:

“I’m really pleased with my results. I was so close to a medal which is frustrating but I had great exposure to some top athletes and it was so valuable to watch them and also play them. This is the best way to learn and helps you to gauge your position on the international circuit.”

penny froude finishes fourth at olbia world boccia challenger 2025

Froude is now armed with plenty of learnings for the winter training season:

“I have some things to work on that came to light but boccia is a continuous journey of learning gained from experiences like internationals, but also tweaking and improving things. I’m certainly feeling more confident.”

Scottish boccia player Alex Medley will also be beaming, having represented Great Britain for the first time.

Ahead of the tournament, Medley was classified as a BC1 player and he went on to make it all the way to the quarter-finals where he met world no 9 Abdulaziz Alzahrani from Saudi Arabia. Earlier, in the pool matches, the X-year old defeated Italy’s Riccardo Zanella 5-1 and Martin Frkovic of Croatia 8-2.

“The main purpose of going to Olbia was to gain classification but I did want to win an end,” said Medley. “So, to top my group and have a tight game with a world top ten player was well above my expectations. This gave me a lot of confidence that I can be competitive in the BC1 category.”

Head Coach Rikki Bingham said:

“Originally, we couldn’t get many spaces for the Olbia tournament. We were always sending Tyler McLelland to be reclassified but then, six weeks before, we were invited to send more players.

“Knowing that World Boccia had a panel of classifiers there, we seized the opportunity to send Alex so that he too could be classified. The fact that he performed so well was a real bonus. He is somebody that we can see shows a lot of potential and has a strategic mindset in the way that he plays.”

Olbia was also an important tournament for Sally Kidson who teamed up with a brand-new ramp operator, Chloe Lewis. It was the pair’s first tournament and a useful test ahead of the World Cup in Coimbra next month.

Together, they reached the playoffs, losing on tiebreak to Mathilde Troude of France.

There was good news for Tyler McLelland who was reclassified as a BC4 player and, like Alex, was observed in competition.

The Scot was unable to escape the pool matches, losing to Ariel Veksler 1-6 and Antonio Sarsanki 4-6.