It was a disappointing day for Bermuda at the Boccia World Cup in Montreal as Yushae DeSilva-Andrade and Omar Hayward both failed to progress to the knockout stages.

Hayward bowed out on a high after bouncing back magnificently from a 15-2 defeat to Hong Kong’s John Loung to beat world No 8 Eduardo Sanchez, from Mexico, 3-2 in pool c.

However, with all three athletes in the pool picking up one victory apiece, Hayward missed out on the knockout stages through goal difference. Although heading home, coach Troy Farnsworth was impressed with Hayward’s performance against Sanchez.

“Omar bounced back brilliantly from his loss yesterday and beat the world No 8, from Mexico, by a single point, which was a fantastic effort,” Farnsworth said.

“The scores were tied going into the last end but he held his nerve under a lot of pressure in a nailbiting game. After a heavy defeat yesterday, to bounce back and beat a player of Sanchez’s calibre, who has been in the top ten for many years, was a fantastic effort.

Unfortunately, in a pool of three the other result did not go Omar’s way. He needed the Hong Kong player to beat the Mexican to progress, but he lost by a point.“

There was also disappointment for De-Silva-Andrade, who also failed to make it out of the pool on points difference after losing 8-2 to Yuriko Fujii, of Japan.

“The players in her pool all won one game each but she missed out on points difference,” Farnsworth said.

“Unfortunately we do not have anyone progressing but we have shown that we can compete with the world’s best. There is plenty to learn from this competition, we’ll look at areas where we can improve and move on to the next one, which will be at Portugal in July.”