THE Great Britain squad for the BISFed Boccia World Championships to be held in Beijing, China, between 19th and 28th September has just been announced.

Kieran Steer, from Crossgates, is one of six Scots named in the 10 man British squad which will travel east.

Kieran is ranked 37 in singles in world boccia and has enjoyed considerable international success in team and pairs boccia plus world junior competitions in the past year.

All three identified players in the BC4 class are from Scotland. Stephen McGuire, from Hamilton, is currently ranked number 6 and Scotland’s most successful player in this class.

Jamie Docherty, from Larbert, is the third player in the class and together they are a formidable unit.

GB Boccia coach Claire Morrison, from Dalgety Bay, will travel with the team and she been a major influence on Kieran’s progress in performance boccia.

Travelling in support will be Kieran’s mum, Lorraine, who similarly has had a major influence in his development as one of the country’s leading boccia players and the first player from Disability Sport Fife to be selected for Great Britain.

The other Scots in the team are, Joshua Rowe, from Perth (BC2), Scott McCowan, from Dundonald, South Ayrshire (BC3), and Patrick Wilson from Peebles (BC3).

Boccia is one of the fastest growing sports in international disability sport.

The game is played indoors on a court roughly the same size as a badminton court and initially was played by wheelchair users with cerebral palsy only.

The BC4 and BC3 classes provide for players with similar functional impairments and the BC1 and BC2 classes are for players with cerebral palsy.

The BC3 players use a ramp to play boccia.

The results at the World Championships will be taken into consideration when selecting players for the Paralympic Games in Rio in 2016.