Claire Taggart

Claire Taggart
Born11 February 1995 (1995-02-11) (age 29)
Larne Northern Ireland
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)stationer and Paralympic Boccia Player
Known forBoccia Paralympian

Claire Taggart (born 11 February 1995) is a UK Paralympic Boccia player and stationer from Larne, Northern Ireland.

As of 2023 Claire is ranked 1st in the BC2 rankings, She is also a fan of local association football team Larne F.C. and regularly does speeches and interviews at Half Time of matches talking about her triumphs in Boccia

Life

Taggart is from Larne in Northern Ireland. She was identified as a BC2 boccia player in 2014.[1]

She was named with David Smith, Nigel Murray and Joshua Rowe as part of the UK's Boccia team.[2] She was 21 when competed at the Rio Paralympics in 2016. No one from Northern Ireland had competed in a Paralympic boccia event before. She would later call her dog Rio.[3]

Taggart runs her own stationery business.[3]

She won a silver medal at the European Championships in Seville in 2019[3] where she was beaten by Francis Rombouts from Belgium. Taggart was in the three person team with Reegan Stevenson and David Smith that received gold medals. The three of them beat the team from Slovakia 4–3 in the final.[4] During the COVID-19 pandemic she had to keep fit by training in her hallway for four months.[3]

In January 2020 she was appointed as the accessibility officer at Larne F.C. initially in an advisory role.[5]

In 2022, Taggert secured two gold medals at the Boccia World Cup in Portugal.[6] and later the same year, gold in the Boccia World Championships in Rio.[7] Taggart is supported by the Mary Peters Trust.[8]

References

  1. ^ "Claire Taggart - Medical and clinical orthotics". DM Orthotics. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  2. ^ "| UK Sport". www.uksport.gov.uk. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d "Great Britain Squad". Boccia UK. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  4. ^ "Larne star Claire Taggart achieves double boccia medal success at European Championships". belfasttelegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  5. ^ "Disability Access Officer & Chaplain appointments made | Larne FC". larnefc.com. 7 January 2020. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  6. ^ "Claire Taggart: Larne woman wins second gold at Boccia World Cup in Portugal". BBC Sport. 10 June 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
  7. ^ "World Boccia Championships: Claire Taggart wins gold in Rio, David Smith takes silver". BBC Sport. 10 December 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
  8. ^ "Claire Taggart – Mary Peters Trust". Retrieved 22 February 2023.