MEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FEATURES TEAMS FROM 6 CONTINENTS TO REFLECT SPORT’S GLOBAL APPEAL
ISF President – “Softball appeals to men and women of all ages and the Men’s World Championship has always been a great date on our calendar”
Saskatoon (Canada); 18th July 2009: Sixteen teams from six continents are bidding for world glory at the XII International Softball Federation Men’s World Championship, which successfully opened in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, yesterday.
With less than a month to go before the International Olympic Committee’s Executive Board meets to decide which two sports from the seven candidates will be recommended for inclusion on the 2016 Olympic Programme, this is a further opportunity for the BackSoftball Olympic reinstatement campaign to highlight the breadth of popularity for the game across the globe.
Canadian Olympic Committee President Mike Chambers threw out a ceremonial first pitch during last night’s Opening Ceremonies in Bob Van Impe Stadium, which is named after one of the 1987 electees to the International Softball Federation Hall of Fame.
The best male players from Africa, North and South America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania are contesting the ten-day event, which is expected to attract capacity crowds through to the final games on July 26.
The 2009 edition of the world’s peak men’s fast pitch softball competition, which is played once every four years, features teams from Argentina, Australia, Botswana, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Great Britain, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Puerto Rico, South Africa, USA, and Venezuela.
ISF President Don Porter said, “The Men’s World Championship is currently the pinnacle event on the men’s softball calendar, although we have offered the IOC the option of including a men’s tournament should they decide to allow us back onto the Olympic Programme in 2016.
“Softball appeals to men and women of all ages and the Men’s World Championship has always been a great date on our calendar and I expect us to see a great deal of excitement and drama with 15 other nations looking to take the title away from New Zealand.”
The first ISF Men’s World Championship was staged in 1966 in Mexico City.
Softball (women’s fast pitch) was first featured in the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 and last year’s competition in Beijing was very successful with a total attendance close to 180,000 and a continuation of the sport’s excellent record of no positive doping tests at any of the four Summer Olympics that the sport has been a part of.
A final decision on which sports will be added to the current roster of 26 at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games will be made at the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen in October this year.
Further information is available in the OTHER DOCUMENTS section of www.BackSoftball.com
For more information please contact ISF Director of Communications Bruce Wawrzyniak at brucew@internationalsoftball.com, +1 813 864 0100 or +1 813 453 8762 or David Alexander at David.Alexander@Calacus.com or +44 7802 412424.