Portable courts making bocce ball more accessible around the world were used last week to host the next generation of bocce ball stars at the Special Olympics Ontario Invitational Youth Games in Canada.

More than 2,000 student athletes from around the world descended on Toronto for the four-day event, which ran from 14-17 May.

The bocce ball competition was held at the University of Toronto’s St George Campus, where more than 240 young athletes competed for gold on 10 inflatable Packabocce courts.

The innovative courts feature a lightweight but durable design that makes them easier to transport, set up and store than bocce ball courts made out of wood or PVC piping.

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.

It will soon be easier than ever before for Australians to get hold of high-quality portable sports equipment, thanks to an agreement between Packaworld International and Sydney warehousing and logistics business ACR Supply Partners.

The agreement will see Packaworld products stored on-shore in Sydney and shipped to Australian addresses direct from the ACR Supply Partners’ warehouse. As a result, shipping costs for Australians will be lower and delivery will be quicker.

“We’re on a mission to help bring the joy of sport to the more people,” says Packaworld Chief Executive Peter Roberts.

“The past year has seen an increase in sales and interest in what we are doing, especially in the sport of water polo, so we’ve decided to make a bigger commitment to Australia. Storing our products in-country will make it easier than ever for Australian sports organisations, clubs and families to buy portable Packaworld sports equipment.”

New full-sized portable rugby posts that can be transported in the trunk of a car and set up in minutes could help grow the sport of rugby across North America.

That’s according to Fort Lauderdale Ruckus Rugby Club President Matthew Wells, who introduced world-first inflatable Rugby Packaposts at the club’s first home U19 10-a-side women’s tournament in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, last month.

Mr Wells said the club had initially planned to use conventional steel rugby posts for the tournament but discovered at the last minute that some of the components they required were missing.

“Fortunately, I had gotten hold of a pair of full-sized Rugby Packaposts after seeing them at the USA National Rugby Development Summit in Denver last year. I brought them to the field in the back of my jeep, set them up in 10 minutes each, and they performed perfectly.”

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.

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.

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.

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.