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- World governing body
praises Australia's sports leaders and officials for creating more
opportunities for women in sport
LAUSANNE,
Switzerland -- The birth of the world's newest women's baseball
competition, the Newcastle
Women's Baseball League (NWBL), has expanded the
sports platform for young girls and women in Newcastle, a major regional
city centre, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia, where the
2000 Olympic Games were hosted in Sydney.
The
NWBL season has just been launched and will offer six weeks of competition
among its four founding clubs (Toronto, Belmont, University and the
All-Stars).
Australia's
-- and the world's -- newest "all-female" baseball league will
provide women with a dedicated new stage on which to perform along with
more highly sought after opportunities for women to participate in sport.
The
world governing body of the sport, the World Baseball Softball Confederation
(WBSC), congratulated local baseball officials on establishing the new
league in response to growing demand amongst local communities for more
opportunities for women and young girls to participate in sport, a key goal
of Australian sporting officials, including Australian IOC member and Vice
President John
Coates, and the Olympic Movement.
"As
well as softball, which is one of the sports women most like to play
globally, baseball is also growing in popularity amongst young women, and
provides new opportunities for women to participate in sport and share in
the benefits of sport," said Riccardo
Fraccari, newly elected WBSC president, who has been
leading attempts to have baseball and softball included in the sports
programme for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as part of the IOC's Agenda 2020
and Olympic sports selection review process.
Since
the WBSC elections last month, the newly elected WBSC Executive Board,
under President Fraccari, has made it one of the WBSC's chief priorities to
call on the Baseball-Softball Family to help produce more equal
opportunities for young people and women to participate in sport -- and for
the skills and knowledge of women to be better harnessed and included in
the WBSC's decision-making structure.
"The
IOC leadership and expert committees -- along with dedicated IOC members
and Olympians such as Ms.
Anita DeFrantz -- deserve much credit for raising the
profile of women's sport and awareness of the importance of getting more
women and young girls into sport, and it is now up to sports leaders and
federations such as the WBSC to find new ways to introduce more women into
their sports," Fraccari said.
WBSC's
Secretary General, Ms. Beng Choo Low, said baseball and
softball's global governing body will do all it can to support the IOC in
its campaign for women in sport.
"The
bat-and-ball sports of baseball and softball continue to grow in popularity
amongst women and men, and have a huge global youth appeal," she said.
"We
must respond to this growing worldwide interest in baseball and softball,
and help local officials and leagues to provide the services and facilities
where possible to help boys and girls realise their sporting dreams,
including their Olympic dreams to represent their country at the highest level
of sport," she added.
Fraccari
said the new Australian league will help to ensure that women are better
represented and supported in the local sports culture, and the new league
has been warmly welcomed by the Newcastle community where it has generated
considerable interest among key local groups and industries, including
Newcastle's biggest media outlets, such as NBN Television and the Newcastle Herald.
"[NWBL]
is a credit to the older girls who paved the way for us," Brittany
Hepburn, an Australia women's baseball national team member told the
Herald. "It's one small step in the right direction."
In
additional to building new bridges for women to participate in sport, the
new league will also serve as a potential launching pad for girls in the
region to strive toward the highest honour of playing for the national
women's baseball team, the "Emeralds".
"I
love representing my country," the Emerald player added.
The
Emeralds will be participating in the VI Women's Baseball World Cup in
Miyazaki, Japan, in September.
WBSC
officials praised Australia's proactive strategy to open new doors for
women in sport, which is also in line with WBSC's global growth strategy
extending to 2020 and beyond.
"The
WBSC fully commends Newcastle Women's Baseball League and Baseball
Australia on this major development," Fraccari stated.
"This
is a key indicator that the reach of baseball and softball disciplines
continue to expand globally and break new barriers -- particularly among
young people and women.
"Baseball
and softball's global stakeholders are heavily invested in not only
expanding our sport's global footprint but deepening it to build more
accessible and attractive pathways to drive young people and women to our
sport."
Australia's
national baseball and softball teams are part of a select group that has
medalled in world championships in all WBSC male and female disciplines
(women's baseball and softball and men's baseball and softball) and in the
Olympic Games.
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