FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 5, 2005

ISF PRESIDENT: 3 CONTINENTS IN THREE WEEKS
North & South Korea Talks Could Shape Combined Team

International Softball Federation (ISF) President Don Porter returned to his sport’s world headquarters in Plant City, Florida (USA), this week, following meetings in New York last week with, among others, NBC and Sports Illustrated.

From North America, Mr. Porter will next head to Africa, where this weekend he will participate in an African Softball Summit being held in Johannesburg, South Africa (May 7-8), along with ISF Secretary General Andy Loechner.  That trip will be followed by a journey that will take the ISF President to Asia from May 11-20 for business in China, North Korea, and South Korea.

Invitees to this weekend’s Summit include the national governing body for softball from the 17 African countries that are ISF members, as well as African International Olympic Committee (IOC) and National Olympic Committee (NOC) members and various sports ministers.

The Asia trip will begin in Beijing, where Mr. Porter will meet with representatives from the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), as well as officials from the Chinese Softball Association.

Next he will head to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea.  There the ISF President will meet with officials from the Softball Association of DPR Korea and, among other business, follow up on the development agreement that they’d signed with the world governing body at the 2003 ISF Congress.

Mr. Porter will leave North Korea and go back through Beijing en route to Seoul.  He will meet with Korea Softball Federation officials, Korean Olympic Committee President Dr. Jung-Kil Kim, and World Taekwondo Federation President Dr. Chung Won Choue.

The ISF President has noted a possible discussion on North and South Korea competing as a combined team at the XI Women’s World Championship in August 2006 in China.

The ISF is the world governing body of the sport as recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF).  Softball (women's fast pitch) made its Olympic debut at the 1996 Games in Atlanta.  There are 126 affiliated countries in the ISF and millions of 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.