The recent boccia test event for Rio 2016 has been hailed as faultless ©Getty Images

The recent Rio 2016 boccia test event took place “without faults" - it has been claimed - despite the tournament being staged at a different facility to the Paralympic Games competition venue.

The Aquece Rio International Boccia Tournament was held at the Riocentro Pavilion, while events at Rio 2016 will be staged at the Carioca Hall 2, located close to the Olympic Park.

Organisers, along with the Boccia International Sports Federation (BISFed), heralded the event as a huge success as a number of operational matters were tested.

“Even though it was not in the same venue that will host boccia at the Paralympic Games, we had similar conditions, such as the playing surface, general structure and ‘look’ of the Games,” BISFed technical delegate Joaquim Viegas said.

The results system and competition schedule software couldn’t be tested, however, due to a recent change in the boccia competition format, which Viegas insisted “wasn’t a problem”.

“This happens in sport,” he added.

“I will be back in April to oversee this adjustment with the people from Omega and Atos.”

Around 90 volunteers gave up their time to assist with the event, which featured 22 competitors from Brazil, Great Britain, Russia, Israel and Portugal.

Beijing 2008 gold medallist David Smith was one of the winners at the boccia test event
Beijing 2008 gold medallist David Smith was one of the winners at the boccia test event ©Getty Images

It took place before a table tennis competition was held at the same venue and comes amid a second wave of test events for next year’s Games in the Brazilian city.

“Volunteers are very important in the Paralympic Games,” Viegas said.

“Here we had young people who were very committed to learning, and they grew a lot over the three days, which helped us a lot.

“Now we have to consolidate this practice, in terms of structure, for the Games.”

Among the winners at the three-day competition were Brazil’s reigning BC2 Paralympic champion Maciel Santos, who described the organisation of the event as “perfect”, and Beijing 2008 BC1 gold medallist David Smith of Britain.

Hygor Santos continued the Brazilian success as he won the BC3 tournament.



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