World Baseball Softball Confederat​ion claims to have staged most successful youth championsh​ip in world sport

Post date: Aug 01, 2013 7:39:33 PM

Baseball - 30 Jul 2013

The World Baseball Softball Confederation has claimed that it has staged “the biggest and most successful youth championship in world sport” with the U12 Baseball World Cup in Chinese Taipei, as it continues its campaign for baseball and softball to return to the Olympic programme for the 2020 games.The confederation said that more than 10,000 fans created a “sell-out spectacle” at the competition, in which USA defeated Chinese Taipei in the final on Sunday, after 14 countries had taken part.Riccardo Fraccari and Don Porter, co-presidents of the confederation, said: “Especially in a time when there are so many different choices for young people and with an uncertain and challenging economic climate, we strongly believe that the ongoing appeal and access of baseball and softball to young people around the world will help to strengthen the Olympic Movement if the sports are included in the 2020 Olympic Games.”Baseball/softball is vying against squash and wrestling to fill the one available slot on the programme for the 2020 Olympic Games, with the International Olympic Committee due to select a sport on September 8. Baseball and softball lost their places on the programme of last year's games and failed with separate bids for reinstatement in the 2016 games.The co-presidents added: “We are trying as hard as we can to earn a place in the 2020 Olympics to inspire our youth base, millions of boys and girls, to strive toward the excellence of the Olympic Games and the values they represent.

“And we are determined through baseball and softball to help empower youth, and especially girls and women--to offer them more opportunities to be included in sport and in the Olympics, and to inspire younger generations of girls and boys to become upstanding citizens, leaders and Olympians.”

Sportcal