Thousands of Special Olympics bocce players in New York are now enjoying their sport on the same high-quality portable bocce courts used for many of the global organisation’s major bocce competitions.

The state’s Special Olympics body has brought in 14 of the courts to run events for the 4,600 athletes participating in Special Olympics bocce competitions and school programmes across the state. The courts have already been used for competitions in Capital District, New York City, and Long Island. In August and September they were used for a bocce exhibition at the New York State Fair.

Special Olympics New York Director of Digital Engagement Kyle Massa said the Packabocce courts were being used to grow the sport, with a particular focus on holding more unified competitions.

A visionary water polo club with a knack for getting things done is using portable water polo fields from Packaworld to bring the sport of beach water polo to the Middle East.

The Dubai Camels Water Polo Club hosted the United Arab Emirates’ second ever international beach water polo tournament earlier this month.

“It was a real showcase of beach water polo and Dubai,” said Peter Roberts, chief executive of Packaworld International. “The Dubai Camels did a fantastic job organising the event and the backing from sponsors and supporters was brilliant.”

The tournament venue – a scenic stretch of water alongside Club Vista Mare on Palm Jumeirah – was transformed into a beach water polo players’ dream with the help of a Packaworld inflatable water polo field and a set of high-quality water polo Packagoals.

Two Australian schools have got the hockey ball rolling once again and, with some help from Packaworld International, shots will be flying into the back of the net.

The portable sports gear company awarded Magill Primary School and Mudgee High School each with a set of Hockey Packagoals, after they won a competition on Packaworld’s Facebook page.

Australian parents and teachers were called upon to nominate their schools, outlining why they deserved to win.

Cynthia Paterson’s inspirational nomination describing Magill Primary School’s hockey revival was a particular highlight. The sport “was as good as dead in 2014,” she wrote.

Special Olympics bocce players in Ireland will have access to high-quality playing courts following the purchase of 26 portable Packabocce courts by their national body.

The new courts are a major investment in the sport’s future and will help Special Olympics Ireland introduce bocce to athletes in new venues and locations.

Special Olympics Ireland Sport Development Manager Elaine Twomey said the courts arrived in the country in October and had their first outing last week at a two-day area advancement event attended by more than 190 bocce athletes in County Kilkenny. 

The event was a success and played an important role in determining which athletes would be eligible to advance to the Leinster Regional Games next year and Ireland’s National Games in 2022, she said.

A bevy of bikini and speedo-clad water polo players joined the wildlife at Jervis Bay in Australia on the weekend for the first major Beach Water Polo Fours tournament of the summer season.

The event was held during the popular Sand and Sea Festival, with players competing on a portable water polo field supplied by Packaworld International. It saw mixed teams from New South Wales do battle in fast-paced day of four-a-side water polo action.

Beach Water Polo Fours spokesperson Emma Brown said the tournament went perfectly despite high winds in the area causing some of the other Sand and Sea Festival multisport events to be cancelled.

"The westerly wind was absolutely crazy, but Huskisson Beach where our tournament was held wasn’t affected at all."

England’s visually impaired rugby team has triumphed over Japan in the sport’s second ever international test series, hosted in Kumagaya on 14 October.

The three-match series was part of a festival of visually impaired rugby organised by UK charity The Change Foundation to coincide with the Rugby World Cup.

Packaworld’s high-quality inflatable Blind Rugby Packaposts were used throughout the series for player safety and to make setting up the smaller fields used for visually impaired rugby simple.

“I never thought I would be playing rugby with other visually impaired people, let alone playing in Japan during a Rugby World Cup,” said England team Captain Jack Pearce.

Hundreds of New Zealand school students will soon be playing handball as part of their PE classes, thanks to a NZ Handball Federation programme using portable goals from Packaworld International.

The initiative will see the goals supplied to selected schools in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. It will expand on the current programme, which has been successfully running in Wellington.

NZ Handball Federation president Mike Roxburgh said the new goals were purchased with the help of a grant from One Foundation to help grow the sport.

He said the NZ Handball Federation was aiming to have 5,000 registered players within the next five years, but a lack of goals and equipment had limited that growth in the past.

South Australia’s goalball players are preparing to host the 2019 Australian Goalball Championships next month, with help from portable, inflatable goals from Packaworld.

The championships are being held in Adelaide from 3-6 October, and Goalball South Australia’s players are busy practising with their new Goalball Packagoals, which they received last month.

The state’s governing body for goalball, Goalball South Australia was established in 2012 in response to significant development of the sport through the work of the Australian Paralympic Committee and Blind Sports South Australia.

Goalball South Australia’s President David Tiller said the ease of transport, time required to set up and storability of the Packaworld goals is much better than steel or aluminium goals.