By Emily Goddard

Yuansen Zheng knocked Jean-Paul La Fontaine out of the quarterfinals at the 2013 Asia and Oceania Boccia ChampionshipsOctober 23 - Australia are out of contention for the medals at the 2013 Asia and Oceania Boccia Championships as the three remaining home athletes were knocked out of the quarterfinals today.

Daniel Michel, Jason Liukuey and Jean-Paul La Fontaine, all making their international debuts at the tournament, faced tough opposition from some of the world's best players who ultimately ended their chances of finishing on the podium at the Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre.

La Fontaine said he felt confident during the BC4 game, but two stray balls saw him lose 7-0 to world number three and London 2012 silver medallist Zheng Yuansen of China.

"I thought I threw pretty well for where I'm at with my experience but gee there were just one or two balls that just didn't go my way," he said admitted.

"The game plan went exactly the way we talked about before but the first two hits I missed two particular balls that I'm a bit disappointed about.

"It would have made him work just that little bit harder and things could've been more interesting."

Liukuey lost 7-0 to Hiu Lam Yeung, Hong Kong's world number six, in the BC2 match and although he had beaten her in pool matches, he admitted it was "a tough game, and a tough opponent".

"I knew she was going to bring a lot more in that game than she did in the pools game because you could tell she had a lot more she didn't use, but overall I'm happy with the experience," Liukuey said.

"I'm happy with my achievement so far and there is plenty of tournament to go with the teams events now.

"Anyone is a danger team here, so we're just going to take one game at a time and throw one ball at a time."

BC3 player Michel was the final Australian in the running and despite holding his Tanimpat Visaratanunta of Thailand to a 3-3 draw at the third end, he missed a win by mere millimetres with the score at 4-3 at the close.

The unfortunate loss followed a tournament of exceptional form for Michel, who had won all three of this pool games to finish at the top of his group, and he will now be focusing on the pairs event, where he will join Tait Jenkins and Angie McReynolds to contest a medal.

"The focus now swings to teams and pairs and we've spent a lot of time training for these three medal events," Australian head coach Peter King.

"We feel confident we can take some form into those and make a real good showing."

Individual finals continue tomorrow morning before the teams and pairs matches gets underway in the afternoon.

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