MEN’S QUALIFIER STARTS THURSDAY
2006-10-31

(Note, 11-8-06: For results from the tournament previewed below, see the November 7 edition of UPDATE found here.)

On Thursday in Kita-Kyushu, Japan, the 8th Asian Men’s Softball Championship will get underway. The fast pitch tournament, which takes place every four years, runs through and including Sunday.

The Softball Confederation of Asia's event brings with it an opportunity to qualify for the International Softball Federation’s (ISF) next big event for men. The XII Men’s World Championship will take place in 2009 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Canada), and the top three finishers from this week’s Asian Championship will gain berths in the ISF event.

Eight teams will compete in Japan. In addition to the host country, Brunei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand will all participate. Of note is the inclusion of Brunei, who is making a comeback after an absence of more than ten years from international competition.

The teams will arrive tomorrow and are to be placed into two groups, according to current Asian ranking, for a preliminary, single round competition. Two fields will be used for the competition, Kitakyushu Civic Field and Mihagino Field.

Japan is not only the defending champion, but has won the last three Asian Men’s Championships. The event’s last champion other than Japan is the Philippines (1990), who has been the runner-up in each of the tournament’s last three occurrences.

This year’s Asian Men’s Championship was preceded by an umpire certification clinic conducted by ISF Asian region Umpire-In-Chief Tommy Wang. A total of 30 umpires, 10 from various Asian countries (including Mongolia and Brunei) and 20 from Japan had been expected to attend the course.