World Boccia’s Challenger series moves on to Colombia at the start of July as part of the South American Para Games in Valledupar, Colombia.
The tournament will bring together 68 athletes from 11 nations at the Games, with competition taking place from 10-15 July at the Gymnastics Arena of the University of Cesar.
Colombia enjoyed outstanding success at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, where siblings Leydi and Edilson Chica captured BC4 pairs gold as well as individual medals.
Colombia won silver in the men’s BC4 individual event through Edilson Chica and bronze in the women’s BC4 individual competition, results that point to another high-quality contest in Valledupar.
Brazil dominated the boccia events at the Lima 2019 Parapan American Games, collecting eight gold medals, while Argentina and Colombia also enjoyed landmark performances.
At Santiago 2023, Brazil again topped the medal standings as Chile and Colombia continued to make significant progress, particularly in the team events.
South America’s strength was further underlined at the 2022 Boccia World Championships in Rio de Janeiro.
Colombia claimed BC4 pairs gold with victory over Slovakia and added an individual BC4 silver through Euclides Grisales.
Brazil collected seven medals overall, including individual BC1 and BC2 world titles, while Argentina won men’s BC2 gold and Chile reached the BC3 quarter-finals.
The Valledupar 2026 Para South American Games will bring together 1,064 para-athletes from 11 countries across the continent, who will compete from 2-15 July across venues in Valledupar and Agustín Codazzi, the official host and co-host cities of the event.
Over 14 days of competition, teams from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela will contest a total of 306 gold medals across 13 sports in the official programme, making this the largest edition of the Games since their inception 12 years ago.
