(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen, WBSC Europe & Marco Stoovelaar)
   WBSC Europe officially launched; CEB hands out Awards
Nederlands
 ATHENS (Greece) -
During the second Congress of WBSC Europe on Saturday (February 2) in Greek capital Athens, WBSC Europe officially was born.
In a statement, it was announced as follows: ,,43 member federations of the Confederation of European Baseball and the European Softball Federation gathered in Athens, cradle of the modern Olympics, to give birth to WBSC Europe on Saturday, February the 2nd, 2019.''
A year ago, during the Congress in France, it was unanimously agreed to merge the European Baseball Confederation (CEB) and European Softball Federation (ESF) into one governing body to oversee the baseball and softball activities in Europe.
In 2017, the International BAseball Federation (IBAF) and International Softball Federation (ISF) merged to become the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC).
On Saturday, a new phase began with the approval of the constitution and the election of an interim Executive Committee that will oversee the development of WBSC Europe until 2021 when CEB and ESF are set to dissolve.
The Executive Committee is composed of 10 members, five from CEB and five from ESF.
Didier Seminet and Gabriel Waage, the Presidents of respectively CEB and ESF, will serve as Co-Presidents of WBSC Europe until 2021.
The other members who were elected into the Executive Committee are Krunoslav Karin (Secretary General), Eddy Van Straelen (Treasurer), Mette Nissen-Jakobsen, Youri Alkalay, Roderick Balk, Petr Ditrich, Marco Mannucci and Kristian Pälviä (who all will be Vice-President).
|
|
|
...Huub Nelissen (left) and David Kulhanek...
(© Photos: Marco Stoovelaar & Henk Seppen) |
Also on Saturday, the CEB handed out its annual awards.
Dutch Official Scorer Huub Nelissen won the Award for Scorer of the Year.
KNBSB-Chairman Mark Herbold was handed the Award on behalf of Nelissen.
It marked the fourth time that a Scorer from the Netherlands won the Award, the others were Linda Steijger (2010), Dennis Duin (2013) and Feiko Drost (2016).
To be eligible for the Award, a Federation has to hand in a nomination.
For Scorer of the Year, a Scorer must have served a minimum of six years on National level and a minimum of four years at International level.
Besides that, the Scorer shall have contributed to scorer development as instructor, evaluator, mentor or program developer on National and International level.
This year, Nelissen will be active in his 30th season as Official Scorer in the Dutch big league.
With that, he is in second place.
The all-time list in the Netherlands is headed by Feiko Drost, Ben Goorts and Marco Stoovelaar, who this year all will be active in their 43rd season at the highest levels in baseball and softball in the Netherlands.
With that, they will extend their record.
The Award for Umpire of the Year went to David Kulhanek from the Czech Republic.
Kulhanek is second Czech umpire to win the Umpire of the Year Award.
In 2013, František Přibyl was the first.
Hiroyuki Sakanashki was named Coach of the Year and Hungary won the Award for Federation of the Year.
Little League Europe was given the Xavier Mateu Award for Excellence.
Also during the Congress, the Pool-alignments for this years European Championships in both baseball and softball were announced.
(February 2)
Related Article:
 Pool-alignments European tournaments announced. (February 2)
|
