Boccia European gold win 'huge' for Kidson

Sally Kidson won her first major gold medal at the European Championships in July

New European boccia champion Sally Kidson says she will take "huge" momentum from winning her first major championship into the rest of this season.

The 20-year-old beat defending champion, Sonia Heckel of France, 3-2 in the individual BC3 final in Zagreb, Croatia, earlier this month to win the gold medal.

"I'm very happy," Kidson told BBC Radio Wiltshire.

"It never hurts to win a big tournament like this and especially a major, but it's not all about that, it's about the momentum going into the rest of the year and ahead of the World Championships next year this sort of thing is huge."

Kidson, from Salisbury, made her Paralympic debut last summer for Great Britain in Paris where she was the youngest person on the team.

She was introduced to the sport in primary school and made her international competition in 2022, aged 17.

"The last Europeans [championships] I did in 2023, I literally came dead last and so to go from dead last to first place is absolutely mental," Kidson said.

Honouring former Paralympians

Kidson said the gold medal win was even more poignant following the deaths of her pairs partner Will Arnott and Great Britain team-mate Matt Berry at the end of 2024.

Kidson and Arnott's gold medal in the Paralympic Games qualifying event secured Great Britain a place in the BC3 category at last summer's event.

"It's nothing short of a tragedy to lose both Will and Matt at the tail end of last year," Kidson said.

Kidson worked with Arnott's long-time assistant Connor Welfare in Zagreb which she said made the event more special.

"This one especially, we know it was a big one because me and Connor Welfare, who was [Arnott's] assistant for 11 years, we thought it would be good to do this together and do it for the big guy," Kidson said.

"To be able to get a gold medal and also Zagreb is where Will had his first international competition and his first gold medal [in 2019].

"It was really special to be able to do it."