Olympic success to provide springboard for 2009 Youth World Cup Softball Competition 22/08/2008 |
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The International Softball Federation has today launched the 2009 Youth World Cup to further promote and advance the development of softball around the world following the dramatic climax of the hugely successful Olympic competition here.
Just as at this year's Olympic Games, where Japan stunned favorites the USA, 3-1, in the grand final, the tournament is likely to take a single round robin format, culminating in a page playoff.
The Youth World Cup will be a girls' 16-and-under fast pitch competition and will be held in the second week of August next year, with a number of major European capital cities currently being considered.
ISF President Don Porter admitted that there is tremendous interest in staging the event but refused to be drawn on identifying candidate cities at this stage.
He said, "This is another fantastic development for our sport and underlines its growing popularity. Softball is incredibly popular among young people and we're currently in the process of drawing up a shortlist of cities.
"We are increasing the number of softball federations all the time but we're not going to be resting on our laurels and hopefully this event will help us further widen the sport's appeal."
Porter, who has been promoting the BackSoftball campaign to get the sport reinstated in October 2009 onto the Olympic programme for 2016, has been able to show International Olympic Committee President Dr. Jacques Rogge and Executive Board members first-hand how successful the Olympic softball competition has been, citing:
• Sellout crowds exceeding 180,000 in total
• A high ratio of close games decided by three runs or less with rule changes dramatically increasing the total runs scored
• Worldwide media coverage of the Olympic softball competition in more than 100 countries
• Increased competitiveness with debutant Venezuela defeating Netherlands and Canada
• Age ranges from Netherlands' Britt Vonk, age 17, to Venezuela's Zuleima Cirimele, age 41
The ISF has been proactive in their youth efforts, having staged a Jr. Women's World Championship (19-and-under) every four years since 1981 (as well as a similar Jr. Men's event). They also have a successful Softball in the Schools program that has been implemented by a good number of their 131 member national federations.
The aim is for softball to return as a sport on the 2016 Games programme after missing out by the narrowest of margins (only one vote) for the London 2012 programme at the 2005 Session of the International Olympic Committee.
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