Kristi Yoshizawa and her Great Britain teammates are in Florida for final preparations before heading to the ISF XII Women's World Championship. (Photo courtesy of British Softball Federation)

READYING FOR CARACAS
2010-06-14

It's fitting that yesterday, the 13th, was World Softball Day and next week, the 23rd, is the start of the world championship. The International Softball Federation’s marquee event for 2010 will see 16 countries compete over the course of ten days in the twelfth edition of the women’s fast pitch tournament that this year commemorates the first-ever occurrence of this championship, 45 years ago in Australia.

Softball will be in the international sports spotlight starting with a Japan vs. Argentina matinee that begins 66 games spread between June 23rd and July 2nd.

As the first pitch draws closer and closer, teams are just about ready for the first ISF world championship ever to be held in South America.

Canada announced their final roster last Thursday following a selection camp in British Columbia. Their lineup is highlighted by eight members of their country’s 2008 Olympic softball team including pitcher Danielle Lawrie who has just won her second consecutive award as the USA’s top college player while competing for the University of Washington.

Speaking of the USA, the red, white, and blue team – gold medalists at the last edition of the ISF women’s tournament (2006 in China) – are playing exhibition games this week in the state of Ohio. They’ll play two games on Wednesday (June 16) and another pair the next day, all against the Women’s Futures National Team. The Americans will depart one week from today for Caracas.

Today the Dutch national team is leaving to go to Venezuela. In the lead-up to next week’s world championship, the Netherlands will play exhibition games against Cuba and Venezuela. Pitcher Rebecca Soumeru, catcher Nathalie Timmermans, infielder Britt Vonk, and outfielder Saskia Kosterink are all holdovers from the team that played in August 2008 at the Olympics in Beijing.

The host Venezuela team has been playing some games in the United States. In Central Florida they played games against a women’s pro team and then moved on to play another American opponent. Followers of that team and international softball will see some recognizable names still wearing the Venezuela uniform, including but not limited to, team captain Maria Soto, pitchers Mariangee Bogado and Johana Gómez, and outfielder Rubilena Rojas, to name just a few.

Similar to Venezuela, the Great Britain national team has set up in Florida to practice together as a full squad for the first time since last summer when they qualified for the ISF event by finishing second at the European Championship. About half of GB's players live in the UK, but others have been playing in U.S. college programs or are based in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and South Africa. Fourteen of the GB players selected for Venezuela are returning from last summer's European Championship squad. The team will leave this coming Saturday (June 19th) for Caracas.

Australia is another team whose final preparations are taking place in the U.S., except they are on the other coast. They began games in California two days ago and will remain out west until departing for Venezuela one week from today. The Aussies have six players on their 2010 world championship team that won bronze medals at the Olympic softball competition two years ago.

Other participants in the 2010 ISF event include Argentina, Botswana, China, Chinese Taipei, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Japan, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Keep up with what all the teams are doing as the world championship begins on June 23rd through various online offerings from the ISF as well as through the official event website.