FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 17, 2002
MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL
Reflections of Last WWC & the 2000 Olympics:
Looking For a Window to 2002's Big Event
This is the third in a series of eight weekly releases leading up to the International Softball Federation's X Women's World Championship, to be played July 26 - August 4 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, from which four teams will qualify for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. Today's feature looks back at the last Women's World Championship as well as the only other event bigger than that for women's fast-pitch - the 2000 Olympic Games. (The first two releases in this series of eight can be viewed from the Press Releases page on the ISF's official website.)
The silver and bronze medallists from the IX Women's World Championship didn't have to wait four years to try to knock off the gold medallist U.S. team from their spot atop the softball world. Two years later the sport made its second appearance in the Olympics at the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia. The result was most similar to the event that had qualified half of the teams who'd played "down under" though. The United States, Japan, and Australia all again were the top three finishers, the only difference being that Olympic silver medallist Japan had gotten the bronze at the WWC where Australia had claimed silver.
Olympic gold wasn't easy for the U.S. though. The team posted a won-lost record of just 4-3 in the preliminaries, losing to Australia and Japan and being shutout by China, although that took 14 innings to complete. Coincidentally, Team USA's other two losses were in extra innings.
Although they did lose two of their seven games in the preliminaries, China was first in runs scored (26) and fewest runs against (four). The reverse of that was Italy, who has vastly improved since then, when they went 2-5 and scored the fewest runs (three) and gave up the most (27). (Italy outscored its opposition in the qualifier for this year's WWC, 54-1.)
The pitchers shone at the Olympics, with four no-hitters and seven one-hitters being recorded. At the plate, Australia's Peta Edebone boasted an .826 slugging percentage, four home runs, and seven RBI.
The final standings were as follows: (1) USA (2) Japan (3) Australia (4) China (5) Italy (6) New Zealand (7) Cuba (8) Canada.
The Women's World Championship was last played July 20-30, 1998 in Japan. Thanks to an almost six hour rain delay, it actually didn't finish until July 31. Play had been suspended in the bottom of the first inning of the gold medal game, but by the time the game resumed - at 12:30 a.m. July 31 - the damage had already been done. And not by the weather. A solo home run by USA pitcher Lisa Fernandez in the top of the first was the game's only run as Australia lost for the first time in 10 games at the event. One of those victories was the night before against the U.S., a 2-1 12-inning affair that snapped a 42-game winning streak by the U.S. in World Championship play. While the host of this year's Women's World Championship - Canada - didn't medal in 1998, their efforts at that event did get them back to the Olympics. The crowning moment may have been a 1-0 victory over Italy on July 30 in which Canadian pitcher Lori Sippel - who after the event announced her retirement after more than a decade with the team - struck out 12.
Sippel posted a 0.00 ERA over 26 innings pitched. Equally impressive was Italy's Susan Bugliarello who struck out 43 in 24 innings. Japan's Naomi Matsumoto turned heads offensively, hitting .667 with 10 hits in 15 at bats.
The following are the won-lost records (with runs allowed in parenthesis) in round robin play in Japan for the teams participating at this summer's event in Saskatoon that played in 1998's WWC: Australia - 7-0 (0); Canada - 6-2 (11); China - 5-2 (8); Chinese Taipei - 5-3 (15); Czech Republic - 3-5 (33); Italy - 6-2 (7); Japan - 6-1 (3), Netherlands - 4-4 (12); Netherlands Antilles - 3-4 (23); New Zealand - 3-4 (31); South Africa - 1-7 (41); USA - 8-0 (0); Venezuela - 3-4 (23).
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.
