By Duncan Mackay

Boccia AustraliaJune 21 - This year's Asia Oceania Boccia Championships in Sydney is to be streamed live on the internet, following a deal negotiated by the Australian Paralympic Committee (APC). 


The APC, together with Boccia Australia and web-streaming production company Viocorp, who claim to be the number one provider of online video in Asia Pacific, will live stream multiple hours of coverage per day over three days from October 18 to 26.

Australia was awarded the event in February.

It will be the first international boccia competition to be hosted in Australia since the Paralympics in Sydney 13 years ago, when Ireland topped the medals table with two gold medals

"This is the first time we've had international boccia here since the year 2000," said Australian Paralympic Boccia head coach, Peter King.

"That's a long time between events."

Boccia Sydney 2000Australia has not hosted a major boccia tournament since the Sydney 2000 Paralympics

The Championships will see the top Asian nations come to Sydney, with 12 countries expected to compete in total.

"This is an amazing opportunity for this team to experience elite international competition at home, but also to engage the whole boccia community and the potential boccia community on our own doorstep," said King.

"I'm very excited for the squad, for individual players and also the future of boccia."

It is expected the webcast will be accessed all over the world, following the APC's successful streaming of the Australia versus Japan wheelchair rugby series in 2012 and the Africa-Oceania Goalball Championships in 2011.

Details of the web-stream will be available on the APC website closer to the Championships.

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