The Ukrainian Pétanque Championship for adult athletes is underway in Lviv’s Stryiskyi Park. More than 100 people from various Ukrainian cities have joined the tournament, including Kharkiv, Kovel, Uzhhorod, Mukachevo, Irpin, Kyiv and others.
The competition has official status as the Ukrainian Championship. For men’s teams, the “doublettes” discipline is a qualifying stage for the World Championship: the winners will represent Ukraine on the international stage next year. For women, the championship results count towards the overall rankings, on the basis of which the head coach and coaching committee will form the national squad.
For the first time, veterans of the Russian-Ukrainian war and people with hearing impairments have joined the tournament. They compete on equal terms with other participants which, according to the organisers, is an important step towards the inclusive development of this sport.
To be able to stage a championship for such a number of athletes, the organisers have set up around 50 playing courts, each 15 metres long. Pétanque competitions have been held in Stryiskyi Park since 2018 and, as the federation notes, the tournament is gradually growing in scale and therefore requires an ever larger area.
President of the Ukrainian Pétanque Federation Liliya Lytvyn said that the second day of the championship in the “doublettes” discipline among men and women is currently underway, and that the main goal of the tournament is to develop and promote pétanque in Ukraine, raise the athletes’ skill level and select players for the national team.
Among the competitors is Viktoriya from Kharkiv. She has been playing pétanque since March 2023, is competing in a pair with an athlete from another club and represents the Pitaksi club. She says that pétanque has become not only a hobby for her, but also a way of psychological recovery during the war, as it combines movement, communication and emotional release.
The championship also features veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war Ivan Drozd, who, together with his comrade-in-arms Orest, represents a team from the Unbroken rehabilitation centre. He has been playing pétanque for about seven to eight months and considers this competition an important stage for gaining experience and preparing for veterans’ events. Together with like-minded people, the veteran is developing pétanque in Stryi and the village of Zahirne, planning to set up new courts and involve young people and veterans in the game.
After being wounded in 2022, Ivan Drozd underwent rehabilitation, including at the Unbroken centre. In addition to pétanque, he is actively involved in running, has already completed marathons in Boston and New York, and is preparing for the Chicago Marathon scheduled for October. According to him, sport helps him to go on living after losing his 20-year-old son in the war, and he sees participation in competitions as an opportunity to move forward and honour his son’s memory.