FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 09, 2002

ISF PRESIDENT REFUTES CRITICISM OF SUSPENSION
OF TEAM LEADER FROM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Also Backs Actions Against Organizing Committee and Softball Canada

International Softball Federation (ISF) President Don Porter issued the following statement today: "I have received a number of letters critical of the ISF's action of suspending the Team Leader for the Chinese Taipei national team at the recently concluded Women's World Championship in Saskatoon where the Chinese Taipei team won the bronze medal. The ISF tribunal that heard the case felt that Team Leader Hsieh Ching-Wen was responsible for allowing an unauthorized flag to be carried in by an athlete, and that the flag being waved by the spectator was the responsibility of the Organizing Committee and the host national federation (Canada), who were both reprimanded by the tribunal for being lax in security."

Mr. Porter pointed out that both the event Organizing Committee and Softball Canada accepted the reprimand and that each forwarded formal apologies to the Chinese Softball Association and the Chinese Olympic Committee.

Mr. Porter added, "while we (the ISF) recognize the highly competitive level at which the Chinese Taipei team played, we do not accept the infusion of politics into a sport in that Chinese Taipei management knew of the policy of both the International Olympic Committee and our federation as it relates to the restriction of flags, banners, and anthems by Taiwan in order to participate in World Championships and the Olympic Games as well as other international competition."

The two incidents involving the banned flag took place last Saturday, August 3. The press release issued the next day regarding the decision and detailing the wrongdoings can be viewed from the Press Releases page on the ISF's official website, www.internationalsoftball.com.

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.