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- Growth of baseball and softball events and territories,
along with new broadcast and sponsorship deals -- especially across WBSC's
youth and women's disciplines -- highlights potential of bat and ball
sports to enhance Olympic-experience at Tokyo 2020 Games.
MIYAZAKI,
Japan -- World No. 1 Japan and No. 2 USA will meet Sunday in the gold-medal
showdown of the ENEOS Presents VI Women's Baseball World Cup -- the world's premier global
platform for elite female baseball players. (See photos.)
The
world championship grand finale is scheduled to be played on Sunday,
7-September at 14:00 (GMT + 09:00).
Broadcast
coverage of the Women's World Baseball Cup will continue through to the
gold medal match in Japan via TV
Asahi, and to audiences worldwide as free content at internetv.tv, as part of
WBSC's partnership with AYM
Sports.
Due to
the demand and interest being generated from the women's baseball showcase,
in-game commentary at internetv.tv
has been expanded to three languages: English, Japanese and Spanish.
In
addition to the broadcast coverage of the 2014 Women's Baseball World Cup,
this year's event -- and women's sport, in general -- has been boosted by
the backing of Japan's largest oil company, Tokyo-based JX Nippon Oil & Energy
Corp, whose "ENEOS" brand has several successful partnerships
across motor sports, including high-profile sponsorships for Formula One
and NASCAR racing teams.
The
ENEOS Presents VI
Women's Baseball World Cup successfully kicked off Monday in front of a
record crowd of 14,500 spectators at Sun Marine Stadium and TV Asahi's
nationally televised/AYM
Sports global online audience.
Following
the opening round-robin, three-time defending champions Japan and two-time
world champions United States have eliminated the competition in the
eight-nation event, setting up a highly anticipated rematch of the 2012 V Women's World Cup finale that
took place in Edmonton, Canada.
On
Friday's first Final Four contest, USA defeated T-No. 3 Australia, by a
score of 3-1, in an exciting, fast-paced and well-defensed pitcher's duel
that lasted just over two hours. (See related article.)
In
Friday's other Final Four match, Japan KO'd Canada, 12-2, causing the game
to end after five-innings and extending "Madonna Japan's" win
streak to 12 games, dating back to Edmonton. (See related article.)
WBSC
working with IOC and Olympic Movement to enhance Games-experience for
athletes and legacy for host nation Japan
In
addition to the continued worldwide emergence of baseball and softball as
one of the biggest sports movements in the world -- now being played
competitively by youth and men and women in over 140 countries -- the
performance of Japan's national women's baseball team in Miyazaki has
further pushed interest and broadcast numbers in Japan, highlighting
significant and unique opportunities for baseball and softball to
contribute to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the two most popular sports in
the Olympic host nation.
Support and hope continues to
build amongst baseball and softball's more than 65 million international
athletes at all levels of competition and among stakeholders and global fan
base, for the bat-and-ball sports to be considered for possible Olympic
Games inclusion by the IOC at a special session in Monaco that will discuss
new options for the Olympic Games sport selection process in December.
Expansion
in 2016
The
next (VII)
Women's Baseball World Cup will be celebrated in 2016 and hosted by another
baseball/softball nation, South Korea, where the global women's baseball
showcase will be expanded from eight to twelve participating nations, in
order to keep up with the global development and widening commercial interest.
A total
of twenty-four Women's Baseball World Cup games are being contested in
Miyazaki to determine the 2014 world champion. (See complete schedule.)
The eight-nation Women's Baseball World Cup, which is being played from 1-7
September, is the world's highest level competition in women's baseball and
features the National Teams of Australia, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Hong
Kong, three-time defending champion Japan, Netherlands, United States and
Venezuela.
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