The first event at the softball stadium (above) built on the campus of the Nanjing University of Technology – which is hosting the softball competition of China’s 10th National Games – was the ISF’s VII Jr. Women’s World Championship. (Photo courtesy of Nanjing University of Technology)

SOFTBALL COMPETITION BIG AT NATIONAL GAMES
2005-10-17

China’s 10th National Games, currently taking place in the Jiangsu province, features 32 sports, including softball. Billed as China’s “mini-Olympics,” the multisport event takes place every four years.

Xiao Tian, deputy minister of the State General Sports Administration, which governs China’s sports, has already announced that softball will remain on the National Games program when it takes place next, in 2009.

The sport started off in grand fashion at this year’s edition of the event. Having just returned from there, International Softball Federation (ISF) President Don Porter said this morning that the stadium was at capacity for the opening of the softball competition last week, with even the hillside beyond the outfield fence being filled with spectators. The same venue (in Nanjing) that hosted the ISF’s VII Jr. Women’s World Championship (19-and-under) in October 2003 is being used for the National Games’ softball competition.

Another ISF tie to the 10th National Games is ISF Director of Umpires Merle Butler serving as an umpiring supervisor during the softball games.

As reported then on www.internationalsoftball.com, eleven teams had competed in two divisions in April in the qualifying tournament for the softball competition at the 10th National Games.

Softball’s success and popularity in China is also seen in the announcement already having been made that the sport will remain on the program of the Asian Games when the 16th edition of that multisport event takes place in 2010 in Guangzhou. (The 15th Asian Games will take place in December 2006 in Doha, Qatar.)