(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Sites and Pools announced for World Baseball Classic Qualifiers
Nederlands
 NEW YORK, New York (USA) -
The four Qualifying Tournaments for the 2017 World Baseball Classic will be staged in Sydney (Australia), Mexicali (Mexico), Panama City (Panama) and Brooklyn, New York (USA).
On Thursday (September 17), World Baseball Classic, Inc. (WBCI) announced the sites and pool alignments for the qualifying rounds of the event, which will be organized for the fourth time.
The winners of each qualifier will advance to compete in the main event, the Classic.
On Wednesday, the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) announced that it has sanctioned the event and that the World Baseball Classic again will serve as the official National Team World Championship.
Sixteen countries will participate in the Qualifying Round, divided over four tournaments, all to be played next year.
The first of the four tournaments will take place February 11-14 at Blacktown International Sportspark in Sydney (Australia).
Participating will be the national teams of Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and South Africa.
The next two tournaments will then be held March 17-20 in Mexicali (Mexico) and Panama City (Panama).
Playing at Estadio B Air in Mexicali will be the Czech Republic, Germany, Mexico and Nicaragua.
Participating in Panama, where the games are being played at Rod Carew Stadium, are Colombia, France, Panama and Spain.
The fourth and final qualifier will be played September 22-25 at MCU Park in Brooklyn, New York.
Participating in this event are Brazil, Great Britain, Israel and Pakistan.
In 2012, when Qualifying Rounds for the WBC were held for the first time, Panama City also hosted such an event.
The other events then were held in Regensburg (Germany), Jupiter, Florida (USA) and Taipei (Taiwan).
The Rod Carew Stadium also was one of the venues (including the final) of the 2011 World Championship, which then was held for the last time according to the former format.
The Netherlands then defeated Cuba in the final to be crowned world champion.
Blacktown International Sportspark was the site for the baseball-tournament during the 2000 Olympic Games in the Australian city of Sydney.
The qualifiers will feature a six-game, double-elimination format.
The composition of the pools was determined after venues were selected, with consideration given to competitive balance, existing rivalries and each national team's geographic location.
Included in the 16 participating countries are the four teams that finishes in last place in their respective pool during the opening round of the 2013 World Baseball Classic, being Australia, Brazil, Mexico and Spain.
The four winners of the 2016 Qualifying Tournaments will advance to the World Baseball Classic, which will be held in March 2017.
They will join the twelve countries that received automatic invitations based on their performance in the 2013 tournament.
They are Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Cuba, theDominican Republic, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, USA and Venezuela.
In 2013, the Dominican Republic won the tournament and the world championship-title after beating Puerto Rico 3-0 in the final in San Francisco (USA).
In the semi-finals, the Dominicans won 4-1 vs. the Netherlands, while Puerto Rico won 3-1 vs. Japan.
Both the first edition of the WBC in 2006 and the second in 2009 were won by Japan.
(September 17)
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