Yushae DeSilva-Andrade has won a gold medal at the 2026 Birmingham Boccia World Challenger.

Held at the Lakeshore US Olympic & Paralympic Training Site in Birmingham, Alabama, the competition pitted some of the world’s leading boccia players against each other.

DeSilva-Andrade came out on top in the BC1 female division after winning three of her four round-robin matches against opponents from South Korea, Brazil and Chinese Taipei.

Bermuda’s 2024 Female Athlete of the year opened her campaign with a 5-0 defeat to Brazilian Andreza de Oliveira but bounced back superbly to pick up wins over the Chinese Taipei pair of Yi-Ting Tsai and Pei Shan Hsu.

Those victories sandwiched a crucial victory in extra ends over her closest rival Sohyeon Park, from South Korea.

DeSilva-Andrade was one of three Bermudians competing in the United States, with Omar Hayward and Zeik Blakeney also taking part.

Hayward, competing in the BC1 male division, finished third in Pool A and failed to make it to the knockout stages but the highlight of his competition came when he produced a fine performance to win 7-2 against Kyle Scott, of Canada.

Blakeney was making his debut in international competition for Bermuda. He competed in pool C of the BC2 male division and lost both of his group games to Mario Sayes, from El Salvador, and Australia’s Aaryan Shah.