A PARALYMPIC career spanning 12 years has come to an end for Nigel Murray who insists he will look back on his Great Britain career with great pride.
The 52-year-old is GB’s most successful boccia player having won two golds, one silver and one bronze medal from Paralympic Games.
He narrowly missed out on a podium place at Athens 2004, but in Beijing four years later he won individual silver and team gold before winning team bronze at London 2012.
The Whitnash resident, who has been named British champion ten times, was hoping to end his career on a high in Rio but his hopes in Brazil were ended by Thailand’s Watcharaphon Vongsa in the individual event and GB were beaten 11-0 by Thailand at the quarter-final stage of the team event.
“This is my last Games and it’s been a real honour,” said Murray, who trains at St Nicholas Park Leisure Centre in Warwick.
“I never thought, when I got selected for Sydney, that I’d still be competing for ParalympicsGB 16 years later.
“There’s no shame in losing to one of the best players in the world. The competition is very tough and there’s no easy games in the quarter-finals.”
“The standard is improving all the time, there are lots of countries competing at a very high level now and anybody can produce some good performances.
“I couldn’t have done it without the support of many people or organisations like the National Lottery.”
