FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 09, 2003

FIRST PITCH COMES THIS SUNDAY AT
VII JR. WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ISF Event Will Be First in New Softball Stadium

The brand new facility at the Nanjing University of Technology gets quite a workout beginning this Sunday, as the International Softball Federation’s (ISF) VII Jr. Women’s World Championship gets underway. The event runs through and including October 20, and features athletes age 19-and-under. The venue was built over the course of the last year at a cost of approximately 2.2 million (U.S.) dollars. This will mark the first time that China has ever hosted a world softball championship.

“This is one of, if not the, best facilities that this event or any of our world championships will have been played in,” said ISF President Don Porter, who is already in China, where today he witnessed the rehearsal for what he said will be “spectacular Opening Ceremonies.”

While the stadium is ready to go, a number of questions wait to be answered at the competition, which is played once every four years. Over the course of those nine days of play, many will be wondering if Japan can successfully defend their Jr. Women’s World Championship title from the 1999 event. The question of whether or not home field advantage will come into play for the Chinese is also likely to be asked. Then there is the point to ponder of whether the U.S. team can have the same success as the American team had at the Women’s World Championship last summer, when that team won the gold medal. What kind of showing the little-known Thailand team will make is just one more on the list of subplots that will be followed as play moves along.

The games are expected to move along at a good pace. Last year at the Women’s World Championship, game times averaged one hour 52 minutes. Next week, however, that number could go even lower with the debut of the 20-second clock. The new endeavor is not a rule change, but rather, was announced by the ISF in March as an additional step that is being taken to help enforce the already-existing rule governing how long the pitcher has to release the next pitch after receiving the ball, or after the umpire indicates, “Play Ball.”

A total of 14 teams are competing in the Jr. Women’s World Championship. They are: Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Czech Republic, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Russia, Thailand, and the United States. Immediately following the tournament, the ISF Congress will take place. Over 70 countries will be in attendance for the proceedings, which go from October 21-25.

An official event website – at http://www.chinasoftball.com/softball - gives fans around the world the ability to follow the competition online (a link to that site will also be available at the top of the ISF homepage). In addition, the official website of USA Softball will have live scoring of their team’s games at www.usasoftball.com

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