Pétanque in Paraguay

Paraguay's boules scene runs through the Federación Paraguaya de Bochas (FPB), a multi-discipline federation - the same governance pattern already documented on this site for Italy, Croatia, and Chile - that oversees raffa volo, zerbín, and pétanque (locally "petanca") together. Of the three, petanca is the youngest and least formally organized domestically, but Paraguay has already fielded players at international petanca events, and the federation's main venue hosts all three disciplines side by side - an unusual arrangement, though (see below) not one this article can confirm is literally unique in the world.

History

Bochas arrived in Paraguay with Italian immigrants who settled in the country following the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870), and clubs dedicated to the sport spread through the 20th century. The Federación Paraguaya de Bochas traces its founding to 1942 - Paraguay's Secretaría Nacional de Deportes (SND) and Paraguayan press described the federation as marking its 79th anniversary in 2021, consistent with that year. (Correction, 2026-10-07: a prior version of this article stated the federation was founded on "5 August 1942." No source checked this cycle - including the federation's own SND profile page - confirms that specific date, so it has been removed rather than repeated as fact; only the year is independently supported.)

For most of its history the federation's competitive strength has been in raffa volo (Punto Raffa Volo) rather than petanca specifically. Paraguay's under-18 men's team won the Punto Raffa Volo Juvenil world title at a championship held in Oran, Algeria in 2023. (Correction, 2026-10-07: a prior version of this article attributed "further medals" from a Punto Raffa Volo Juvenil championship to Algeria 2025. No 2025 Algeria event could be found; Paraguayan government press instead ties the Algeria result to 2023, and appears to be a separate, earlier achievement from the 2025 World Junior Bocce Championship described below - the two were likely conflated in an earlier edit.)

Petanca itself has developed on a slower track. Paraguayan sports press covering the federation's push to bring the three disciplines together at a single national venue in 2022 described petanca as still being practiced informally by an unaffiliated group of players that the federation was working to bring into its formal structure, rather than as an established competitive discipline with its own domestic league - a genuinely different starting point from Italy's or Chile's longer-running pétanque programs under similar umbrella federations.

2025 World Junior Bocce Championship

Paraguay's junior raffa volo squad had a standout result at the World Junior Bocce Championship, held 28 October - 1 November 2025 in Plaintel, France and organized by the Confédération Boules Internationale (CBI), with 21-22 nations competing. Paraguay finished first overall in the event's country ranking. Thaila Kreuz won gold in women's precision shooting (beating Turkey 10-7) and gold in mixed doubles (beating Uruguay in an extra end), with two further silvers in precision shooting - Kreuz lost a separate shooting final to Uruguay, and her mixed-doubles partner lost a men's shooting final to Italy - matching this article's previously-stated "two gold, two silver" haul, now correctly dated and located.

(Note: Paraguayan government press (ip.gov.py) and other local coverage name Kreuz's mixed-doubles and shooting partner "Marcos Vinicius Schneider" (sometimes just "Marcos Vinicius"), while the CBI's own English-language recap of the same event names the equivalent medalist "Marcus Schneider." This article follows the Paraguayan-press rendering; whether the two names refer to the same person under different transliterations could not be confirmed either way this cycle.)

Paraguay's Triple-Discipline Bochas Venue

The Centro Nacional de Bochas ("Bochódromo"), part of the Parque Olímpico Paraguayo in Luque, opened for the XII Juegos Suramericanos Asunción 2022 with four petanque courts, two volo courts, and two raffa courts. The venue has been described in a paraphrase of a Pan-American Bocce Confederation official's comments as hosting all three disciplines together, a genuinely uncommon setup. (Correction, 2026-10-07: a prior version of this article stated the Secretaría Nacional de Deportes itself called the venue "the first and only stadium in the world" hosting all three disciplines. No source checked this cycle supports that specific superlative as a direct quote from the SND or anyone else - it traces instead to a looser paraphrase of a confederation official describing the venue's facilities. The claim has been softened accordingly rather than repeated as a verified fact.)

At the 2022 South American Games held at this venue, Paraguay's own players competed in both the Punto Raffa and petanca mixed-pairs finals. In Punto Raffa, Argentina's Jonathan Rupere and Milagros Pereyra beat Paraguay's Marcos Moreira and Ramona Torres in the mixed pairs final (sources disagree on the exact score: 12-3 per the Pan-American Bocce Confederation's own recap, 9-3 per Wikipedia's results table). In petanca, the mixed final was contested between Argentina and Venezuela - Venezuela's José Manuel Marcano and María de Jesús Pérez won gold, beating Argentina's Montemerlo and Bolatti 11-6. (Correction, 2026-10-07: a prior version of this article named the winning pair "Carlos Marcano and María Pérez" with a score of "11-0." Both the player's first name and the score were wrong per Wikipedia's "Bocce at the 2022 South American Games" results page and the Pan-American Bocce Confederation's own recap; corrected above.)

International Results

Paraguayan press has reported that Paraguay sent a national team to the Panamericano de Petancas Limache 2023, said to have been held 6-10 December 2023 in Chile as the inaugural Pan American pétanque qualifying tournament for the 2024 World Championship in France, alongside Argentina, Canada, Chile, the United States, Mexico, Peru, and the Dominican Republic. (Flagged, 2026-10-07: despite an extensive search - Chilean press, FIPJP's own Pan-American Confederation page, and other regional petanca sources - no independent source could be found confirming this specific event's dates, the eight-nation list, or Paraguay's participation. FIPJP's Pan-American Confederation page does list Paraguay as a member federation, which makes the general scenario plausible, but the event details above remain unconfirmed and should be treated with caution pending a primary source.)

A prior version of this article also stated that Paraguay sent CIEP/FIPJP coaching candidates to a "Formación de Técnicos de Petancas" course in Santiago, Chile in November 2025, alongside candidates from Chile and Canada, certifying to the FIPJP/CIEP Level 1 diploma. (Flagged, 2026-10-07: no source could be found confirming or denying this course this cycle - an absence of confirmation rather than a contradiction - so it has been left in place but should be re-verified by a future cycle.)

2026: Paraguay's Bochas Delegation at the Santa Fe South American Games

Paraguay's bochas delegation - including petanca alongside Punto Raffa Volo, Bochas Volo, and precision shooting - competed at the XIII Juegos Suramericanos Santa Fe 2026 in Argentina, with bochas events held 13-17 September 2026 at Estación Belgrano. Paraguay's overall Games delegation had a strong showing (12 medals on one day alone, per Paraguayan press), but this article could not confirm Paraguay's specific petanca or raffa volo medal count at this event - a gap a future cycle should look to close. For context, Uruguay's delegation won bronze in mixed petanca (Alaniz/Calero) and mixed raffa volo at the same Games.

Federation

The Federación Paraguaya de Bochas is based at the Complejo SND, Av. Eusebio Ayala y R.I. 6 Boquerón, in Asunción, and is led by president Alcides E. Acosta, with José Cavallaro as vice president and Pablo Cantero as secretary, per Paraguay's own Secretaría Nacional de Deportes federation page. (Correction, 2026-10-07: a prior version of this article named the vice president and secretary as "Víctor I. Ubaldi" and "Carlos O. González." Neither name matches the federation's own current SND profile page, which names Cavallaro and Cantero instead - also independently corroborated by Paraguayan government press naming Cavallaro as part of the federation's delegation to the 2025 World Junior Bocce Championship. Corrected above.) The federation can be reached at fedpbochas@hotmail.com.