POSTED: Wednesday January 21st 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TEAMS SET FOR YOUTH WORLD CUP

Eleven Countries to Compete in Prague in August

PLANT   CITY, FLORIDA -- The teams that will participate in the Easton Foundation Youth Softball World Cup were announced today by the International Softball Federation.  A total of eleven countries will field a team in the 16-and-under girls’ fast pitch competition scheduled for August 9-16 in the Czech Republic.

The list of teams for the tournament in Prague includes: Canada, China, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Russia, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.

“We’re very pleased with the response that we received from our national federations for this tournament,” ISF President Don Porter said.  “The fact that we’ll have teams from eleven different countries representing four regions playing in this event shows the worldwide growth and popularity of our sport, especially at the youth level.

“Many of our national federations have implemented the Softball in the Schools program throughout the education systems in their country,” he continued.  “Those young children represent the future of our sport.  Events like the Easton Foundation Youth Softball World Cup and the ISF junior women’s and junior men’s world championships (19-and-under fast pitch) represent goals for these youths to aim for as they grow in softball.”

The schedule will be released at a later date; however, each team will play a minimum of five games.  The tournament will be played at the Prague Softball Center, which in the past has hosted international events such as the Men’s Fastpitch World Cup (June 2007) and the Prague Cup (late July/early August 2004).  The Czech Softball Association is organizing the event in consultation with the ISF.

The ISF is the world governing body of the sport as recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF).  Softball (women’s fast pitch) made its Olympic debut at the 1996 Games in Atlanta.  There are 127 affiliated countries in the ISF and millions of participants in the sport worldwide.

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Keywords · ISF · Youth World Cup · Don Porter

Name: Bruce Wawrzyniak
Organization: ISF
Email:
Phone: +1(813) 864-0100
URL: http://www.ISFsoftball.org

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