Special Olympics Competition Dotting the Southland Today

Medals will be awarded today in bowling, powerlifting and the Italian sport of bocce in the 2015 Special Olympics World Games.

Competition is also scheduled today in bowling at the Lucky Strike Lanes at L.A. Live; basketball, swimming and track and field at USC; golf at Griffith Park; rhythmic gymnastics, soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball at UCLA; soccer at the Balboa Sports Center in Encino; cycling and beach volleyball at Alamitos Beach in Long Beach and sailing off the Belmont Pier in Long Beach.

The first medal event was held Sunday, with Monica Prieto of Paraguay setting a record, winning the 10,000-meter run in a Special Olympics World Games-record time of 44 minutes, 13.98 seconds. American Karen Dickerson who set the previous record of 45:40.86 in 2011, was second in 44:53.42 in the race held at USC’s Loker Stadium.

Onesmus Munyao Mutinda of Kenya was the winner of the men’s race in 32:46.10. Christian Weissenberger of Germany was second in 35:54.39 and Denis Fabian Perez Hernandez of Uruguay third in 36:28.09.

Medals were also awarded in triathlon, which was held on Alamitos Beach in Long Beach, and in swimming at USC’s Uytengsu Aquatics Center.

As a Special Olympics sport, bocce provides people with special needs the opportunity to have social contact, develop physically and gain self- confidence, according to organizers. It is the third most-participated sport in the world, behind soccer and golf, organizers said.

Bocce involves rolling out target ball, which is called a pallino. Each team rolls one bocce ball towards the pallino, and the team that loses that round of the contest then has to roll all its bocce balls close to the pallino.

The other team then gets to roll its fusillade of bocce balls to both get close to the pallino, and also possibly displace the others’ balls. The team that finishes with the closest ball to the pallino gets points based on the location of the other team’s balls.

The medal events in bocce, bowling and powerlifting will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, as will today’s competitions in badminton, roller skating, table tennis and team handball.

--City News Service