An emotional adventure – Anita and Boris at the 2024 Paralympics

The 2024 Paralympics in Paris were a real adventure with highs and lows for our boccia athletes Anita Raguwaran and Boris Nicolai. These elite games for people with disabilities are not yet over – the official closing ceremony is on 9 September 2024. On a purely sporting level, the battle for medals and placings is now over for both Anita Raguwaran and Boris Nicolai. Both have tested their mettle against the best in the world and put in remarkable performances. We take a look back at some exciting days spent in the city of love and sport.

Anita Raguwaran
A historic win and some close defeats

After the spectacular opening ceremony on the Champs Elysées and Place de la Concorde, where the two HYLO^® enjoyed some unforgettable, breathtaking moments, we got straight down to business with the pair’s first Paralympics competition day in the South Paris Arena 1. The preliminary games for the group stage were beginning. 

Anita Raguwaran had to play twice on the first day (29 August 2024). She was competing in the women’s BC4 class. Her first match was against Alexandra Szabo of Hungary, who is fifth in the world. Despite fighting hard, Anita had to accept a 0:6 defeat. However, the assistant radiologist from Saarbrücken-Dudweiler did not let this discourage her. 

In her second match, she showed her full skill and gained a clear win over the favourite and world number four, Carla Oliveira of Portugal. ‘I am delighted to have won against the reigning European champion, who I have failed to beat several times, on the major stage that is the Paralympics’, Anita happily said afterwards. She could now start dreaming about making it to the next round. 

I am delighted to have won against the reigning European champion, who I have failed to beat several times, on the major stage that is the Paralympics

The final group game would be the decider as to whether she would progress. In this crucial third game (30 August 2024), the German player faced Laissa Guerreira of Brazil, a young rising star. Anita was narrowly defeated 2:4 in an exciting match. It was not until the fourth and deciding end, with the score at 2:2, that the Brazilian was able to place her final two balls better and win the game. 

Despite her early departure, Anita has made history: she is the first German boccia player to win a game at the Paralympics.

Boris Nicolai
A positive conclusion and some tight matches

Boris Nicolai was also competing in the BC4 class for the men and had a particularly difficult group. The St. Ingbert native’s first game was on 29 August against the current world championship runner-up Euclides Grisales of Colombia, who is currently sixth in the world. Despite fighting hard, Boris had to accept a 0:11 defeat. This clear result does not do justice to the tight, exciting course of the match: in some cases there were just a few millimetres between success and failure, invisible to the naked eye.  

In the second game on the following day (30 August 2024), things became even more dramatic and competitive for the German mechanical engineer, against world number one Pornchok Larpyen of Thailand. Boris Nicolai lost his second group game against the Thai player with a close 4:5 score, despite a 4:0 lead. In the final end, Nicolai had an opportunity to score the crucial deciding point with his final two throws, but was unable to get any balls close enough to the target and was ultimately narrowly beaten, which combined with his first defeat meant that his onward play and medal hopes were brought to an end. 

In the final group match on Saturday (31 August 2024), however, the HYLO^® athlete gained a convincing 6:2 win over Mahmoud Allam of Egypt. This longed-for success marked a positive end to the Paris Paralympics for Boris Nicolai, who was also knocked out after the preliminary round with a single win in the 2021 Tokyo event. 

‘A positive end to Paris. Nevertheless, I am a little disappointed that I was not able to show off my best boccia game. But it was great that my family were able to watch my last match in the competition arena’, was Boris Nicolai’s brief summary after the final group game.

A positive end to Paris. Nevertheless, I am a little disappointed that I was not able to show off my best boccia game. But it was great that my family were able to watch my last match in the competition arena

An emotional adventure

Both athletes are of course disappointed with their early exit, and it will take some time for them to process everything and for their thwarted athletic ambitions to give way to pride in what they have achieved. 

‘Of course, even being here in Paris and playing with professional athletes alongside our jobs is a huge achievement for us, but we will need to process the defeats and narrowly missing out on progressing further’, Anita Raguwaran noted.

This sporting ambition and the performances they put in are impressive. Qualifying for the Paralympics and standing as one of the top 16 in the world is in itself an exceptional achievement. Anita and Boris gave their all and showed great resilience.

The two boccia athletes will use their remaining time in Paris to watch the Paralympics and enjoy the atmosphere. They will also participate in the closing ceremony on 8 September, before returning to Saarbrücken on 9 September. 

Perhaps that will be enough time and distance to help them process this huge adventure. ‘I hope I can gain some distance in the next few days, let this gigantic event sink in, and look back over my journey and realise how far I have really come’, Anita reflected from Paris. 

We are proud of the performances put in by our two HYLO^® athletes and look forward to future moments together with Anita Raguwaran and Boris Nicolai.

Bon retour & à bientôt, ihr beiden!