BOCCE
BY BLAKE METCALF-HOLT
CONTINUED success, even more so lately, for Morwell Bocce Club.
The last two weeks have seen even more medals arrive back to the Gippsland Bocce Centre, most recently at the Australian Bocce Championships.
At the Junior Open event, young star Kayla Dukes brought back gold in the Under 18 singles.
Not her first go-around, Dukes debuted on the national stage in 2022, taking out the U15 singles title and earning best-and-fairest honours representing her home club in Morwell.
Despite having mountains of success over the past three years, Dukes said she still had emphasis on improving ahead of this latest campaign.
“Lots of training, and just getting more practice in before the competition because the competition was very tough this year,” she told the Express.
“I had to come up against some very good players, but it was lots of fun to see everyone again.”
Dukes has also represented Australia at the prestigious Denis Ravera Bocce Challenge, competing in the Doubles section in 2023, travelling to Monaco.
Her most recent win at the Australian Junior Championships qualifies her for the national team at next year’s world’s event.
Morwell Bocce Club also collected gold medals in the Quads and Triples division, as well as silver in the Doubles.
Seasoned performers Anna Prezioso, Maria Maselli, Mirella Alesi and Christina Finocchiaro have competed at national level for close to 25 years.
While securing top finishes in the past, this was significant milestone, having taking out multiple medals across the same weekend.
“We trained very hard for it, so it’s good to get a reward out of it after all the hard training,” Maselli said.
“We’ve won so many; we’ve won gold before, but only not as many (at a time), so this time we almost took everything out.”
Given such the high level of competition, the Morwell team was made to work for their honours, with both winning finals coming down to just a point difference.
“It was really, really close, and the doubles as well was really, really close,” Maselli said.
“We compete year-after-year, we form that bond and that friendship, (so) it’s like family getting together.”
The week prior also saw success for Morwell Bocce Club with wins at the Australian Raffa Championships.
Diane Penney and Tina D’Urbano took home silver medals in the Doubles competition, while Penney won gold in the precision throw, and D’Urbano runner-up.
The Latrobe City Classic will be hosted at Morwell from July 4 to 6.
Morwell Bocce Club hold Wednesday night social bocce from 7.30pm behind the Italian Australian Club.
