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.

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.

The number of athletes playing bocce at the 2017 Special Olympics New Zealand National Summer Games has increased by 28 per cent since the previous event – and inflatable courts from Packaworld International have been a driving force behind rising participation.

The National Summer Games bocce tournament was played at the Hutt Indoor Sports Centre from 27-30 November 2017 using inflatable ‘Packabocce’ courts, which first transformed the way bocce is played in New Zealand in 2013.
​
Special Olympics Regional Sports Coordinator Jayden Richards said the event had gone fantastically well, and was closely contested between athletes from 10 New Zealand clubs. 

Sports enthusiasts in several Asian countries will now be able to buy a range of unique sports equipment from New Zealand company Packaworld International, thanks to an agreement with one of China’s leading sports equipment suppliers, AirGoal Sports.

Following several years of collaboration, Packaworld and AirGoal Sports have entered a distribution agreement, which extends Packaworld’s distribution network to east Asian countries, including China.

Packaworld CEO Peter Roberts said the agreement was a significant milestone in Packaworld’s history and a huge step towards achieving the company’s vision of bringing the joy of sport to more people around the world.

Special Olympics athletes from across South and Central America experienced the magic of portable Packabocce courts during the recent 2017 Latin American Special Olympics Games bocce tournament in Panama City.

Bocce is an ancient sport of Italian origin, similar to petanque but played within a court with raised sides.

​Latin American Special Olympics Sports Director Domenico Carnevali said the inflatable 60 x 12-foot competition size Packabocce courts produced by Packaworld International had performed admirably over five days of solid competition play, and had captured a lot of people’s imagination.

Innovative inflatable sports courts produced by Packaworld International will take the field at the Latin American Special Olympics Games in Panama this April, along with more than 800 athletes from 21 countries.

The courts provide the arenas for the sport of bocce, an ancient Italian sport similar to pétanque and lawn bowls, to be contested by 110 athletes from 13 countries at the event.

Packaworld Chief Executive Peter Roberts said competition bocce courts were 60 feet long and 12 feet wide, and were traditionally built into venues or composed of bulky materials.

Participation numbers in Special Olympics Bocce have almost doubled in the Australian state of New South Wales since 2013, thanks to portable courts and passionate volunteers.

New South Wales Special Olympics Bocce Sports Coordinator Mary Greig says 55 Special Olympics athletes participated in last month’s New South Wales Special Olympics State Bocce Competition, which took place at Charlestown Bowling Club on 11 September.

Charlestown Bowling Club was the venue for bocce at the 2013 Special Olympics Asia-Pacific Games, and Ms Greig says the games resulted in “a wonderful legacy”.

An innovative inflatable bocce court produced by New Zealand company Packaworld International has the potential to revolutionise the global sport of bocce.

Chair of the Special Olympics Bocce Sports Resource Team Mike Ryan said inflatable ‘Packabocce’ courts have been “a revelation” for the sport since their initial production. As Special Olympics New Zealand Manager of Sports Operations, he had seen bocce prosper since their introduction.

As the courts are 60 feet long and 12 feet wide, and were previously composed of wood or Plexiglas, their storage and transport posed significant issues for the uptake of the traditional Italian sport in countries without established facilities.

Packaworld's inflatable bocce courts will be on show in Wellington's Civic Square this Friday.

The courts have been provided to support 'Bocce in the Square', an event organised by Special Olympics Wellington to encourage participation in one of the world’s oldest sports.

Held from 12:30 - 2pm, this event will introduce people to the sport of bocce, one of the major participation sports at the Special Olympics worldwide.

Setup is sure to be quick and easy thanks to inflatable Packabocce courts supplied by Packaworld International Limited, who will be on-site to join in the fun.

Special Olympics US Athlete Tiaunta Gray made the news today as she taught abc's Eyewitness News anchor Leslie Sykes a thing or two about bocce ball.  Tiaunta is one of  7,000 athletes descending on Los Angeles who will be supported by an army of 3,000 coaches from around the world from July 25 to Aug. 2. See full story here .
​
"We recently attended one of the US Bocce teams training camps, so we know how hard the athletes have been working," said American Bocce Company co-founder Alex Gara.

Packaworld's US distributor Wicker Park Bocce Club (WPBC), took a trip down to Indianapolis, IN  where a group of young bocce hopefuls tried out for the USA Special Olympic bocce team. The 4 day camp is one of a number of training events preparing athletes for the 2015 World Special Olympics being held in  Los Angeles, CA. Being showcased and used for the training event where the inflatable Packabocce courts, from Packaworld.   

"The athletes enjoyed playing with the courts and I was impressed by the way they were very easy to set-up and break-down," said Nip Ho, Sports Manager for Team USA.  

Observers from Special Olympics Arizona were impressed with the inflatable bocce courts being presented by newly appointed Packaworld distributor Wicker Park Bocce Club.

"They are fantastic, " said  Jamie Heckerman, Director of Training & Competition. "We host around seven large scale bocce events a year and have around 400 bocce players within our SO community, so these will get well used."

"The meeting went well, and the observers were very impressed," said Ben Tudor, Wicker Park co-founder. " We're obviously delighted that they went on to invest in 18 courts. As long time users of the Packabocce courts ourselves we know only too well how easy these are to setup, transport and store."

News just released, from Special Olympics Asia Pacific, is that Bocce is now the second most popular participation sport in the Asia Pacific region. 

"We have over 188,000 athletes playing the sport of Bocce, overtaking football, ten pin bowling and basketball whilst athletics, as you'd expect, is still the most popular." said Mike Ryan, National Sports & Coaching Director Special Olympics NZ.

"We still have opportunities to grow the sport and we are always looking at ways of increasing player participation levels - one of which is to look at the new mini courts that have been developed by Packaworld." 

Bocce courts a great hit with organisers and athletes alike

Packaworld took part in one of the largest sporting events in Australia and were proud to be the supplier of the largest inflatable bocce court implementation.

The Games were held from 30 November to 7 December and was the largest event for people with intellectual disabilities in Australasia with around 2000 athletes and coaches from across 32 countries in the Asia Pacific region attending.

One of the most popular events was Bocce which was held at the impressive Charlestown Bowling Club (CBC) venue. Equally impressive where the 24 x inflatable bocce courts from Packaworld that were set up each day by a small team of enthusiastic CBC members.