Pétanque is quite popular in France and it is actively played in many nations with a history of French colonial influence, especially in Southeast Asia. There are also strong national federations in Germany, Spain and England.
In Portugal, not so much: the closest thing we have it's our own "jogo da malha", played with a sort of pebbles instead of metal balls.
Understandably, when it came to the pétanque competition at the Inter-Agency Games, the UN's annual sports tournament, UNESCO, the UN agency in charge of organising the 2019 edition, was concerned about our ability to set up such an event.
With 126 players enrolled in the pétanque competition, we had a big challenge on our hands!
We found the ideal space at the University Stadium in Lisbon. We then arranged for the competition to be supervised by specialized judges and successfully procured all the necessary equipment - even tough every good pétanque player has his own set of metal balls.
The tournament went wonderfully. The floor was perfect and the sun shone bright and strong: good thing we had a bar set up near the fields, so players were nicely hydrated all the time! Everyone was in a good mood and enjoying.
With Move Sports, in Portugal, pétanque is played at the highest level!
