Manbol, the Amazonian sport in search of fans in Brazil – 03/07/2024 – Sport

It all started with two brothers playing with mangoes in the Brazilian Amazon. That children’s game is now a sport with rules and fans, and is already played, albeit timidly, in several regions of Brazil. Welcome to manbol. Near the edge that divides the promenade of Copacabana beach, in Rio de Janeiro, a colorful net highlights an unusual court.

On the hot golden sand, blue ropes form a rectangle 10 meters long and five meters wide. Is it a tennis or volleyball court? The doubt disappears, although not completely, when the four manbol practitioners —”manbolistas”— begin to throw from one side to the other, simultaneously, two balls similar to those used in American football and rugby.

They are smaller than those used in these two sports and their design has a more folkloric inspiration: the seed from the mangoes that Rui Hildebrando and his younger brother, Rogério, played with as teenagers in Belém do Pará, a city in the Brazilian Amazon.

At post 4 in Copacabana, Rui — of short stature and dyed blonde hair — makes the court available to curious people who want to introduce themselves to his world that emerged more than two decades ago. “In the beginning it was a simple game with sleeves.

I would throw the sleeve to my brother and he would throw it back. It was a struggle to keep the sleeve from falling to the floor. Then I added playful rules and realized that using two sleeves gave more energy. We didn’t stop, the game got faster”, says Rui, 44, to AFP.

“Get tired”

The brothers’ passion pleased other relatives and friends. Over time, Rui Hildebrando improved the regulations and the materials to practice them. In 2004, with sporting and business motivations, he founded the Brazilian Manbol Confederation.

It was the official creation of a sport that is currently practiced on the grass of the Amazon or on the beaches of Rio, usual venues for multiple disciplines.

Named after the union of the words sleeve and ball, manbol has a simple regulation: it is played with the hands and is scored if the ball falls on the ground in the opponent’s field or if the opponent sends it out of bounds.

If both sides score on the same play, the point is repeated. It can be played on any surface with up to three players per team and the first to win two sets of twelve points wins.

On average, each match lasts between 15 and 25 minutes. “It’s very dynamic and the two balls make it a lot of fun. I get tired after playing, but it’s a matter of practice”, says Adriana Mathias, a 46-year-old physical education teacher, a “manbolist” since 2007.

Distant dream

Little known by Brazilians and without professional athletes for now, it has slowly gained ground and already has federations in four Brazilian states (Rio, Pará, Ceará and Brasília).

It has around 2,000 fans in a country with more than 200 million inhabitants and has already been shown in eleven nations in South America, Europe and Asia, according to Rui Hildebrando.

It was recognized as a “sports modality” by a law from the Belém city council in January 2016 and presented to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva last June. “It’s an inclusive sport that can be played by people of all classes and ages. It works on different physical skills, agility, reflexes.

It has everything to grow”, points out Katia Lessa, president of the Rio Manbol Confederation. The authorities of this Amazonian sport dream that one day it could become an Olympic discipline, an aspiration that for now seems very distant in a land more seduced by football or volleyball.

But they don’t lower their arms. Next to the athletic Lessa, who protects her eyes from the strong sun with wide sunglasses, physiotherapist Beti Biaggi curiously observes a sport that she was previously unaware of.

“The agility and mobility caught my attention,” says this 53-year-old physiotherapist. “It seemed very interesting to me, so I stopped to watch it.”