Olympic success provides springboard for softball's development: ISF president
22/8/2008 17:49
The International Softball Federation (ISF) has launched a new event to
further promote the global development of softball following the climax of the
Olympic competitions in Beijing today.
The namely 2009 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 been listed as the candidate hosts.
"This is another fantastic
development for our sport and underlines its growing popularity. Softball is
incredibly popular among young people," said ISF president Don Porter.
"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," he added.
Softball, which made a debut show at
Atlanta Olympics in 1996, was voted out of the 2012 London Games.
ISF then
launched the "Backsoftball Compaign", aiming to get the sport reinstated in next
year's vote onto the Olympic program for 2016.
Porter, who has been promoting
the compaign during his visit in Beijing, hails the Beijing Olympic softball
tournament as "hugely successful" and also has been able to have a discussion
with International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge about its
success.
"The sellout crowds has exceeded 180,000 in todal. The
competitiveness also has improved a lot. Besides, more than 100 countries'
medias has covered the event. These are all good signals to prove our sport is a
global one. We have showed these success to the IOC president and some other
members," said Porter.
Last night, Japan stunned favorites the United States
3-1 in the grand final, ending the Americans' run of three successive Olympic
gold medals. Though Porter was American, he regarded Japan's victory as a proof
to the sport's global strength.
"Few would have predicted that Japan would be
picking up the gold medal but it came true . I'd like to commiserate with the
losers but I'm sure this will provide further encouragement to other nations who
are enjoying and playing our increasingly competitive sport," said Porter.
Xinhua
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