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XIV
Women's Softball World Championship Competition schedule announced
International
Softball executives of the WBSC have announced the official competition
schedule of the XIV Women's Softball World Championship, which will be
staged in Europe for the first time, in the host city of Haarlem,
Netherlands.
The
world's premier women's softball event on the international calendar will
feature sixteen nations in 56 matches in a round-robin format, followed by
ten playoff (double page playoff system) contests.
National
Teams from all five regions of the globe (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe,
and Oceania) -- Australia, Botswana, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Cuba,
Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Great Britain, Italy, Japan,
Netherlands, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Russia, and USA -- will
unite at Nol Houtkamp Sportpark's two competition venues in Haarlem.
On
the Opening day -- 15 August -- spectators will be able to follow all
sixteen nations in action, with the ceremonial first pitch being delivered
at 09:30 CET.
Official
opening ceremonies will begin at 18:15 at the main venue, which will be
followed by the day's feature match, as host Netherlands takes on the 2012 silver-medalist
USA in front of an expected large home-crowd audience.
The
gold medal match-up will take centre stage on 24 August at 15:00, and will
be preceded by the bronze medal match at 12:00.
"The
Softball World Championship provides a dedicated international platform for
women athletes to shine and be the focus of sport," said WBSC and ISF
Secretary General Beng Choo Low, "and the strong ticket sales being
generated for this world event highlights the spectator interest, and the
power and potential of softball as a promoter of women's sport, helping
shape a global sports environment that is more balanced and relevant to
women."
"The
expected influx of visitors to Haarlem for the Women's Softball World Championship
and the global spread of participating nations provide further arguments
that women's sports -- and a popular women's sport like softball -- are
increasingly growing into viable, valuable and stand-alone products with
which to showcase a city and a nation as an international sports centre and
tourist destination," the WBSC official added.
The
WBSC has a full list of official events on the calendar that span from July
to November which include the 10th U-19 Men's Youth Softball World
Championship in Canada, 2nd U-15 Baseball World Cup in Mexico, the 6th
Women's Baseball World Cup in Japan, and the Inaugural U-21 Baseball World
Cup in Taiwan (ROC).
NOTE: To view the full game
schedule, click here.
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