Historic Croatian Performance at Taranto 2026

Ten countries participated in the Raffa competitions: Algeria, Croatia, France, Italy, Libya, Malta, San Marino, Slovenia, Tunisia and Türkiye. Medals were contested in four disciplines: Men’s Individual, Women’s Individual, Men’s Doubles and Women’s Doubles.

Croatia achieved a historic success by reaching the final in all four disciplines. Despite this outstanding consistency, the Croatian athletes narrowly missed the gold medals, losing two finals to San Marino and two to Italy. San Marino claimed the men’s titles. Jacopo Frisoni defeated Croatia’s Luka Žure 8–3 in the Men’s Individual final, while Frisoni and Enrico Dall’Olmo overcame Duje Pirić and Luka Žure 7–6 in the Men’s Doubles final. San Marino also earned bronze in the Women’s Doubles through Stella Paoletti and Giada Paoletti.

Italy dominated the women’s competitions. Laura Picchio defeated Croatia’s Ana Juginović 7–4 to win the Women’s Individual title. Picchio then joined Kety Crescenzi to secure a second gold medal with a thrilling 9–8 victory over Ana Juginović and Neda Ćorić in the Women’s Doubles final. Alfonso Nanni and Luca Viscusi added a bronze medal for Italy in the Men’s Doubles.

The remaining two bronze medals went to Türkiye and Algeria. Abdullah Kaplan represented Türkiye on the Men’s Individual podium after defeating France’s Aurélien Corbihan 7–6, while Algeria’s Nor El Houda Maidi won bronze in the Women’s Individual event.

The competitions were chaired by Roberto Loparelli and officiated by five Italian national referees and one Turkish international referee. CBI President Dr Mutlu Turkmen and CBI Presidential Advisor Dino Amado closely followed the competitions throughout the four-day programme.

During the Games, President Turkmen held fruitful meetings with FISU Sports Director Shen Zhen and FISU Winter Sports Director Milan Augustin regarding the inclusion and further development of bocce within FISU programmes, including opportunities for the Winter University Games. He also met with the new President of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI), Luciano Buonfiglio.

President Turkmen additionally held a special meeting with WPBF President Claude Azéma, International Pétanque Federation (FIPJP) President Gérard Schneider, International Volo Federation (FIB) President Pascal Hernandez and Italian Bocce Federation President Roberto Favre. The discussions focused on joint actions, closer coordination and future activities and initiatives under the WPBF framework.

The Raffa competitions concluded with an impressive display of sporting quality, international cooperation and competitive balance, while Croatia’s unprecedented appearance in all four finals marked one of the most notable achievements of the tournament.

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