Canada’s Alison Levine was eliminated in the women’s Paralympic boccia BC4 competition by Colombia’s Leidy Chica Chica in dramatic fashion on Saturday.

Levine, the world’s No. 2, held a narrow 2-0 lead over world’s No. 1 Chica, halfway through their quarterfinal match, on Saturday.

Chica scored two in the third end, tying the match.

The familiar rivals remained deadlocked on the scoreboard, throughout the fourth and final end, until Chica threw her last ball, earning one point to secure a 3-2 victory.

“Unfortunately, it was a gold medal match in the quarter finals,” said Levine, afterwards.  

During pool play, the Canadian had two wins and a loss, while the Colombian was a perfect 3-0.

Chica would go on to be upset in the semi-finals, by Lin Ximei, of China.

The Montreal-based Levine was the last Canadian medal hope, of the four boccia competitors who qualified for individual events in Paris. 

Danik Allard (Bois-des-Filion, Que.), Iulian Ciobanu (Montreal) and Lance Cryderman (Val Caron, Ont.) did not make it out of the preliminary rounds.

Levine will be back in action, paired with Ciobanu, in BC4 mixed pairs action on Tuesday morning. The duo is the No. 3-ranked BC4 mixed partnership in the world.

They won a bronze medal at the 2022 world championships.

In 2023, Ciobanu and Levine won the Parapan Am gold medal match, defeating Leidy, who joined forces with her older brother, Edilson Chica. The Canadians also earned gold in the 2024 Povoa World Boccia Cup in July.

Their Tuesday Pool B preliminary round match is against China’s Lin Ximei and Zheng Yuansen.

“We’re both fired up. We’re both hungry. We’re just going to give it our all,” said Levine.