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Six international softball teams from three continents are taking part in the 2009 World Games, which held Opening Ceremonies on thursday in Kaohsiung, further establishing softball’s appeal to a global audience in the lead-up to the International Olympic Committee vote for Olympic reinstatement, which starts at their Executive Board meeting in Berlin next month.

Unlike other international sports tournaments, the World Games focuses more on the concepts of friendship, community cooperation, and unification, with athletes demonstrating these concepts through sport, which fits in with the ideals that softball promotes throughout the world.

Through the International Softball Federation, softball is being used as a tool to support and bring together communities across the world, particularly targeting women and young people with a sport that is easy to learn and inexpensive to play.

A four-day fast pitch softball competition beginning today features women’s teams from Canada, Chinese Taipei, Japan, (South) Korea, Russia, and Singapore.

ISF President Don Porter, who will go to Kaohsiung shortly, said, “This is an extremely busy time for softball and the World Games provides a further opportunity to promote the BackSoftball campaign for Olympic reinstatement.

“Softball is extremely popular in South East Asia and Japan’s gold medal win at last year’s highly successful Olympic softball competition in Beijing has further enhanced softball’s profile and I have no doubt that, like in China last August, the spectators will create a festive atmosphere once again.”

The 8th World Games, the world’s second largest international sports tournament, which continue until July 26, will bring together almost 5,000 athletes from 105 countries. Softball is also on the programme of approximately 15 other multi-sports Games.

Softball 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.