FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 02, 2002

IT'S OFFICIAL - CHINA TO HOST ISF'S
NEXT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Junior Women's Tournament to Take Place
in Nanjing in Late 2003

SASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN - The International Softball Federation's VII Junior Women's World Championship will be held in Nanjing, China next year, following a formal signing of the agreement between the ISF and Chinese Softball Association at a press conference today. The proceedings come amidst the X Women's World Championship, which is being played here, concluding on Sunday.

"We are happy to finalize this with the Chinese," said ISF President Don Porter. "We know we can count on a presentation that will be representative of a first-class tournament. This will be their first time hosting a world championship, and will surely set the stage for future international play there as well."

The Junior Women's World Championship is for players age 19 and under and is held every four years. Its last occurrence was in Taipei, Taiwan in 1999 and was won by Japan. Fifteen teams played in that event, which allows for a maximum of 16 teams.

Also at today's press conference, Mr. Porter announced the appointment of Pat Lillian of the United States to the ISF's Executive Council. She is already the chairperson for the ISF Athletes Commission.

The ISF President also named the delegates for Athens for the 2004 Summer Olympics. They are ISF 1st Vice President Clovis Lodewijks of the Netherlands Antilles and ISF Vice President/Europe Pavel Prachar from the Czech Republic.

The International Softball Federation, celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2002, is the governing body of softball internationally as recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF). The ISF organizes and conducts world championship competition in women's and men's fast pitch, junior women's and men's fast pitch, women's, men's, and coed slow pitch, and women's and men's modified pitch. Softball (women's fast pitch) made its Olympic debut at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. There are 125 affiliated countries in the ISF and over 40 million participants in the sport worldwide.

For more information, please contact ISF Director of Communications Bruce Wawrzyniak at brucew@internationalsoftball.com or (813) 864-0100, ext. 229.