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.

More action, more time on the ball, and more fun. That’s the difference a new fully-contained inflatable pitch is making for children taking part in the Grasshopper Soccer Redlands junior football programme in Queensland, Australia.

The programme is run by William Fraser, a former Queensland U18 national premier league assistant coach and Brisbane Roar community coach.

Mr Fraser has coached football for 20 years and now devotes his time to developing the next generation with a programme that focuses on improving children’s athleticism and motor skills using the beautiful game as a vehicle.

The ancient sport of bocce has undergone a resurgence in some parts of the world, helped in part by the invention of a new portable court that lets players take the game with them wherever they go.

Traditional bocce courts are made of wood or stone and can be 8-14 feet wide and 60-100 feet long. These are the kinds of courts that were used in town squares and courtyards during the days of the Ancient Roman empire.

They look good and work fine, but they are far from portable. They certainly can’t be packed up and taken to communities and locations crying out for new and accessible recreational opportunities.

Bocce courts featuring a revolutionary inflatable design were centre stage at the USA’s largest Special Olympics state games in Florida over the weekend.

Developed by Packaworld International, the inflatable Packabocce courts feature a lightweight but highly durable design that makes them far more portable than traditional bocce ball courts made out of wood or stone.

More than 5,000 athletes, coaches, volunteers and family members took part in the Special Olympics Florida State Summer Games, hosted at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Walt Disney World, Orlando.

Hundreds more American Special Olympics athletes will soon be bowling their way to bocce bliss following a decision by Special Olympics Florida to purchase 28 new portable playing courts to help grow the game across the state.

Special Olympics Florida Vice President – Operations Akin Joseph said the courts, which arrived last month, had been impressive at their debut at the Area 8 Summer Games in Tampa.

Inflatable ‘Packabocce’ courts, first developed in 2013 by Packaworld International, feature a lightweight but highly durable design that makes them far more portable than traditional bocce courts made out of wood or stone.

One of Wellington’s largest junior football clubs is looking to the future with a recent purchase of 20 Junior Football Packagoals from Packaworld International.

North Wellington Junior Football Club President Andrew Vines says the club plans to use the portable, inflatable goals to inspire players taking part in its ‘First Kicks’ and 'Fun Football' programmes, designed for the youngest age groups of 4-8 -year olds.

The junior programme involves teams of five, with no goalkeeper. The two metre by one metre Junior Football Packagoals meet New Zealand Football Junior Framework standards for First Kicks and Fun Football, making them “absolutely ideal” for the format, Mr Vines says.

The nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines may be home to just 100,000 people, but that isn’t stopping it from sending a bocce team to the United Arab Emirates to compete at the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi.

In 2015, the tiny Caribbean nation returned to the World Summer Games in Los Angeles after a 10-year absence to win silver in the sport of bocce. This time, they are out for gold with the support of portable bocce courts from Packaworld International.

Special Olympics Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has purchased competition and recreation-sized ‘Packabocce’ courts to aid their bocce team’s training efforts for the World Summer Games and help them increase participation in the sport of bocce across the nation’s nine inhabited islands.

Packaworld’s custom-made inflatable water polo playing fields featured at the Karratha Water Polo Association’s annual Australia Day water polo tournament at Malus Island, located 20 kilometres off the coast of Western Australia.

Known as ‘H20Polo@theisland’, the tournament attracted more than 50 players and numerous spectators, who enjoyed a day of sun, sport and the sea in a spectacular offshore setting.

Karratha Water Polo Association President Justin Angove said being able to play water polo in a location where few would even dream of playing made the event special.