2025 World Games Pétanque Results: Tunisia and Benin Make History

Pétanque handed out three sets of medals at the 2025 World Games in Chengdu, China, and two countries left with results that had never happened before. Tunisia's Mouna Béji won two gold medals, individual precision shooting and mixed doubles, giving her country its first-ever World Games golds in any sport. Benin's Marcel Gbétablé won the men's precision shooting title, the first World Games medal Benin has won in any discipline.

Event at a Glance

• Dates: 14-17 August 2025 (petanque and lyonnaise), part of the wider Games running 7-17 August 2025
• Venue: Chengdu Sport University, Sancha Lake Campus, Chengdu, China
• Discipline: Boules sports - three petanque events and three lyonnaise events
• Organizer: International World Games Association (IWGA), in cooperation with the Fédération Internationale de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal (FIPJP) and the World Pétanque and Bowls Federation (WPBF)

Unlike the FIPJP's annual World Championship, which runs full triplette and doubles-per-gender competitions, the World Games program for pétanque is compact: a men's individual precision shooting event, a women's individual precision shooting event, and a single mixed doubles event (Mixed Petanque Classic Doubles), each pairing one man and one woman per country.

Men's Precision Shooting: Gbétablé Delivers Benin's First Medal

Marcel Gbétablé of Benin won gold in Men's Precision Shooting on 16 August, defeating Italy's Andrea Chiapello 29-25 in the final. Thailand's Ratchata Khamdee took bronze, beating Tunisia's Mohamed Khaled Bougriba 44-32 in the third-place match.

Gbétablé's win was Benin's first medal of any color at any World Games, making Benin the 80th different nation to reach a podium across the history of the Chengdu Games. It capped a strong recent run for Beninese pétanque, which also won gold at the 2023 World Championship on home soil in Cotonou.

Women's Precision Shooting: Béji Opens the Door

In the women's final, also held 16 August, Mouna Béji of Tunisia beat China's Yan Linlin 35-31 to win gold. Thailand's Nantawan Fueangsanit took bronze.

Béji, Tunisia's most decorated pétanque player, already held World Championship titles in triplette (2011), individual (2023) and mixed doubles (2025). The Chengdu win added her first World Games gold, and it was only the beginning of her week in Chengdu.

Mixed Petanque Classic Doubles: Tunisia Completes the Double

Béji returned to the podium in Mixed Petanque Classic Doubles, partnering Mohamed Khaled Bougriba to a 10-9 final win over Thailand. It was Tunisia's second gold of the Games, and the pair's win made Béji individually responsible for both of Tunisia's first-ever World Games golds.

France's Lucas Desport and Sandrine Poinsot took bronze, beating Italy 13-4 in the third-place match after a mixed run through the bracket: wins over Benin (13-5) and Italy (13-9) in earlier rounds, then a 2-13 semi-final loss to Thailand. France finished the wider Games in the top five of the overall medal table with 38 medals across all sports.

Full Petanque Medal Table

The Road to Chengdu

National teams qualified for the 2025 World Games through World Games Series qualifying events held earlier in the year. At the Chengdu stop of that series in March 2025, Madagascar's Yves Rakotoarisoa and Mirana Ramamonjisoa both won precision shooting gold, securing their places in the August Games alongside a dedicated mental-performance coach who had helped Madagascar to a World Championship title the previous December.

Why the World Games Matters for Pétanque's Olympic Push

The World Games, organized every four years by the International World Games Association with the backing of the International Olympic Committee, exists to showcase sports that are not on the Olympic program. Pétanque has competed in every edition since 2013. Its presence there is tied directly to a decades-long campaign for full Olympic recognition: pétanque's global body, the World Pétanque and Bowls Federation, points to strong World Games participation and results as part of its case to the IOC. The WPBF picked up fresh momentum in March 2026 when World Bowls rejoined the federation, broadening the coalition pushing for Olympic inclusion.

For now, the FIPJP's own World Championship remains pétanque's showcase event on the annual calendar - see our preview of the 2026 World Championship in Khon Kaen, Thailand for what comes next on the competitive calendar.