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.

Up until recently Tokyo man Kohei Kamiya had never dreamed of playing international rugby. But that is all about to change, thanks to his selection as captain of Japan’s first blind and visually impaired rugby team.

Kamiya will be one of 10 visually impaired players who will represent their country later this year when the Japanese team plays a three-match international test series against the English Visually Impaired Roses.

The series, taking place on 13-14 October during the Rugby World Cup, will be the second ever international visually impaired rugby test series.

Japan Blind Rugby Secretary General Ayako Matsui said the Japanese team was expecting a hard-fought battle against an "experienced and strong" English side.

New inflatable goalball goals are helping a Canadian sport organisation introduce sport and physical activity to aspiring blind and low vision participants, as well as supporting its high-performance goalball athletes.

The Alberta Sports and Recreation Association for the Blind (ASRAB) has recently received two portable Goalball Packagoals from New Zealand company Packaworld International. The unique goals are the same size as conventional nine-metre-wide metal goalball goals but are inflatable, making them easy to transport and store.

ASRAB Executive Director Linda MacPhail said the new goals would play an important part in helping the Association to take its sport and recreation programmes to people with vision impairments in more towns and cities across Alberta.

A blind Hamilton man is on a mission to grow the sport of goalball, aided by a world-first inflatable goal developed by innovative sports gear company Packaworld International.

Steve Donnelly is the captain of Waikato Goalball Club and well known within the blind and low vision community for his sporting exploits as a New Zealand BlindCaps cricket player.

The 47-year old is keen to raise awareness of goalball – a popular sport at the Paralympics – but has struggled to introduce people to the sport because of a lack of local facilities with goals.

But that is about to change. Waikato Goalball Club received a boost on Saturday when they used the new Goalball Packagoals for the first time at one of their training sessions at Melville Community Hall in Hamilton, New Zealand.

The Paralympic sport of goalball has received a major boost with news Blind Sport New Zealand has purchased eight new portable goalball goals to bring the game to blind and low vision athletes around New Zealand.

The type of goals being purchased are new to the sport, having been recently developed by New Zealand company Packaworld and used internationally for the first time in a goalball exhibition match involving the Great Britain Men’s Goalball Team in England.

Known as Goalball Packagoals, the nine-metre-wide goals feature an inflatable yet highly stable design that is more portable and easier to store than traditional goalball goals made of steel or aluminium.

New Zealand’s highly successful blind lawn bowls mixed pair of David Stallard and Sue Curran were celebrated on Saturday night, alongside their directors Peter Blick and Ann Muir, at the 2018 Blind Sport New Zealand Sports Awards.

The group won the Packaworld Team of the Year Award in recognition of their dedication and strong performances at the Blind Lawn Bowls World Championships and 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The award, sponsored by Packaworld International, was one of eight awards presented during an awards dinner at the Grand Millennium Hotel in Auckland.

The Great Britain men’s team continued its preparation for the IBSA European B Championships, which take place in Poland later this month, by competing in an exhibition match using world-first inflatable goalball goals and barriers.

The match, played between members of the Great Britain squad and emerging talent within the sport, took place at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. The event was a celebration of Goalball UK’s recent Investor in Customers Silver Award and was a platform to raise awareness of the Paralympic sport.

Goalball UK chief executive Mark Winder said the event had been a great success, demonstrating the sport to people from a wide range of backgrounds.

Newly-designed portable goalball goals could inspire blind athletes and help the sport of goalball to grow across the United Kingdom thanks to a trial supported by Goalball UK.

The national governing body for goalball has been using the lightweight nine-metre-wide goals produced by Packaworld International at South Yorkshire Goalball Club to help players build skills and offer a real-game experience.

Goalball Packagoals inflate to nine metres wide, spanning the full width of the playing court, but deflate for transportation and storage.