Lawn bowls are back with the Gold Coast hosting the sport's top competition. But as The World Bowls Championships finds new popularity across countries you wouldn't expect competitors of all-abilities are also making their mark.
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00:00 It's a sport of precision and strategy, but don't call bowls quiet.
00:07 Over the next two weeks, 44 countries are competing at the World Bowls Championships
00:13 on the Gold Coast.
00:14 It's the biggest bowls championships ever held, with the sport gaining popularity across
00:19 Africa and the Asia-Pacific.
00:21 Bhavan Balentra hopes to take lessons home to Botswana.
00:25 It's just a whole other level compared to where we're from.
00:28 You'd have a club with probably 40, 50 members, where you guys have got thousands of members
00:34 in a single club.
00:35 Reenan and Maria Evangelisti took up bowls as a hobby during lockdowns three years ago.
00:41 Now they're representing Brazil.
00:43 Everybody can play with old people, with young people, and that's accessible for everyone.
00:52 For the first time in the championship's 57-year history, players of all abilities are competing.
00:58 It's addictive.
00:59 It's addictive.
01:00 And I think from a disability's point, it's good.
01:05 You're not given a handicap sort of thing, because you can play anyone, really.
01:09 So it's good to be on a level playing field.
01:11 The last championships were held in 2016, postponed because of COVID.
01:16 Now seven years later, there are more than 540 competitors ready to go.
01:21 We're going to go back with a hell of experience that we've gained from all of this so far.
01:26 And of course, it wouldn't be Lawn Bowls without finishing the game with a beer.
01:30 [BLANK_AUDIO]