(Eleuthera, Bahamas) – National Special Olympics Bahamas 2016 events are taking place throughout the month of May 2016 in New Providence (including soccer and bowling – culminating with its annual track and field nationals, scheduled to take place at the Thomas A. Robinson Stadium in New Providence on Saturday, May 28th). However, this year, the kickoff took place in Eleuthera, in a two day event on Friday, April 29th, and Saturday, April 30th, with the signature sport of Special Olympics Bahamas, bocce, for the very first time taken to a family island venue for the 2016 bocce national championships. Teams from four islands – Eleuthera, Abaco, Grand Bahama and New Providence, battled it out on the playing field in Tarpum Bay, adjacent to the primary school in singles, doubles and team competition in a number of age and ability level divisions.
National Director of Special Olympics Bahamas, Gilbert Williams, commented on being in Eleuthera, “This is the first time that Special Olympics Bahamas has traveled to Eleuthera to have a tournament, and on a national level. Many of the athletes, this is their first time in Eleuthera, so they are having fun with the competition, as they are very competitive, but they are also having fun otherwise – and a lot of them have expressed that they’ve enjoyed themselves so far, and we want to go down to the Glass Window bridge tomorrow. We can’t come to Eleuthera and not go to the Glass Window bridge, so that will be one experience we want to take in outside of the tournament, and make sure they didn’t just travel to Eleuthera for the tournament, but can go away saying I’ve seen something significant in Eleuthera.”
The five membered team from Eleuthera included; Clifford Alcime, Joshua Diesste, Riemy Saintvil, Leanna Johnson, and Alpurneisha Brown (substitute). “I’ve been watching them and they are doing very well, and they are going up against older people,” said Bill Holland of the School For Exceptional Learners, where all the team members are students. He also explained that although they had played the game, this was their first time in an actual tournament.
The talented and enthusiastic Eleuthera team, according to results released by Special Olympics Bahamas, “pulled off a huge “double upset” that no one anticipated, when they beat both Abaco and New providence to claim 2nd place and the silver medal in the team competition. This was the first time that this group of talented and contagiously excited Special Olympics Athletes had ever competed in this national competition but you could not tell by watching them compete. They opened up play by handily defeating the team from Abaco 12-0, before defeating New Providence 8-6 to claim the silver medal. Only the team from Grand Bahama could produce the right formula to tame this young team.”
The tournament which got started with singles matches on the Friday, continued on the Saturday, where doubles matches preceded full team competition, wrapping up that afternoon with medal presentations.
For newbies to the sport, National Director Williams summarized the essentials of the game as follows: “Bocce is an Italian sport, but it is also the official sport of Special Olympics. The objective of the game is; there is a small ball called by different names like the ‘jack’, the ‘pallino’ and so many others, which becomes the target. It’s a moving target, because when the game starts, the first player moves the ‘pallino’ into play. Once its rolled into play, then each team will take turns trying to get their balls as close to the ‘pallino’ as possible. At the end of the game, the team who has their balls closest to the ‘pallino’ will win, and points are scored by having as many balls as close to the ‘pallino’ as you can. So you can score from one to four points in a game, each team having four balls to roll.”
