2026 Mediterranean Games: Pétanque Results

Pétanque returned to the Mediterranean Games program at the XX Mediterranean Games in Taranto, Italy, with the boules competitions held 22-25 August 2026 at the Palazzetto dello Sport in Montemesola, a comune roughly 20 km from the host city. Alongside boules lyonnaise and raffa, pétanque contested four events: men's and women's precision shooting, and men's and women's doubles.

Italy's Diego Rizzi and Spain's Alba Valiente Quereda took the two precision shooting titles, France's Nelly Peyré and Toréa Tairio won women's doubles gold, and Italy's Andrea Chiapello and Rizzi completed a home-nation sweep with men's doubles gold, giving Rizzi two titles at the same Games.

Men's Precision Shooting: Rizzi Adds Another Title

Diego Rizzi, already the most decorated Italian player in pétanque history, beat Spain's Manuel Luque González 44-30 in the final to win Mediterranean gold. Rizzi had topped qualifying and reached the final by way of the bracket's upper half, while Luque González eliminated Yohan Cousin 50-43 in the semifinal to book his own spot in the gold-medal match.

Cousin recovered from that semifinal loss to take bronze, beating Tunisia's Khaled Bougriba 40-25 in the small final. It capped an eventful run through the draw for the Frenchman, who scored 37 in qualifying before a huge 57-point effort in the repechage rounds - within two boules of the sport's precision-shooting world record, which Rizzi himself co-holds at 67.

Women's Precision Shooting: Valiente Quereda Denies Peyré

In the women's event, Spain's Alba Valiente Quereda beat France's Nelly Peyré 32-30 in a tight final to take gold. Tunisia's Mouna Béji - a two-time FIPJP world champion - won bronze, beating Italy's Sara Ferrera 43-40 in the classification match after falling 36-37 to Peyré in the semifinal.

Women's Doubles: France Completes the Set

Nelly Peyré, fresh off her precision shooting silver, teamed with Toréa Tairio to win women's doubles gold, beating Spain's Célia Abril Cruzado and Alba Valiente Quereda 13-9 in the final - Valiente Quereda's second medal of the Games after her precision shooting title. Tunisia's Mouna Béji and Ahlem Hadj Hassen took bronze, beating Turkey 13-3; it was a second medal of the Games for Béji, who had won precision shooting bronze earlier in the week.

Men's Doubles: Chiapello and Rizzi Complete Italy's Sweep

Andrea Chiapello and Diego Rizzi beat France's Yohan Cousin and Christophe Sarrio 10-6 in the semifinal, then went on to beat Spain's Manuel Luque González and Sergi Ruiz Álvarez 9-4 in the final to take gold - a second Mediterranean Games title of the week for Rizzi, and a first for Chiapello. Cousin and Sarrio recovered from their semifinal loss to beat Tunisia's Mohamed Khaled Bougriba and Majdi Hammami 11-9 in the bronze-medal match - a second Games medal for Cousin, to go with his precision shooting bronze, and a first Mediterranean Games medal for Sarrio.

The Boules Program at Taranto 2026

Pétanque shared the Montemesola venue with boules lyonnaise (Italy's Diego Verganti and Slovenia's Urban Hiti tied for progressive-shooting gold; Montenegro's Gracija Stjepčević won precision shooting) and raffa (San Marino's Jacopo Frisoni won men's singles and doubles; Italy's Laura Picchio completed a singles-and-doubles sweep in the women's competition, partnering Kety Crescenzi). Host nation Italy topped the overall boules medal table, with strong showings from France, Spain, San Marino, Croatia and Tunisia across the three disciplines.

For more on the players involved, see our profiles of Diego Rizzi, Yohan Cousin, Christophe Sarrio, Andrea Chiapello and Nelly Peyré, or catch up on precision shooting technique before the next major championship. Mouna Béji, who took bronze here, made bigger history a year earlier - see our recap of her two golds at the 2025 World Games.