(Story & Photo by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Men's Softball World Championship '19 comes to Europe; Women's Championship '18 to Japan!
Nederlands
...Softball President Dale McMann...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
 OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma (USA) -
Over the past few days, the 27th WBSC Softball Congress was held in Oklahoma City (USA).
There, the Congress was attended by delegates from 42 countries, who joined WBSC-President Riccardo Fraccari and WBSC Softball President Dale McMann, to discuss and decide numerous on- and off-field topics related to world softball governance and the sport's global activities.
Throughout the Congress, emphasis was given to youth and modernization inspired by the IOC's Olympic Agenda 2020.
A long-range strategic plan was presented and overwhelmingly supported.
An implementation commission was appointed and will immediately start working on its execution.
The four pillars of the plan include:
Strengthening the organisation, Developing coaches and officials, Improving athletes and Enhancing the events.
Four World Championships were awarded to four hosts for organization of the events in 2018 and 2019.
| Sites Women's World Championships since 1965 |
| Host | Country | Year(s) |
| 4 | Canada | 1994, 2002, 2012, 2016 |
| 3 | Japan | 1970, 1998, 2018 |
| 2 | USA | 1974, 1990 |
| 1 | Australia | 1965 |
| 1 | China | 2006 |
| 1 | El Salvador | 1978 |
| 1 | Netherlands | 2014 |
| 1 | New Zealand | 1986 |
| 1 | Taiwan | 1982 |
| 1 | Venezuela | 2010 |
The 16th Women's Softball World Championship, to be played in 2018, was awarded to Chiba in Japan.
It marks the third time that the event will be held in Japan, which also hosted the second championship in 1970 in Osaka.
The last time that the World Championship was played in Japan was in 1998 when Fujinomiya was the playing site.
It will be the fifth time that the event will be held in Asia.
Besides the three tournaments in Japan, the other were held in Taipei (Taiwan, 1982) and Beijing (China, 2006).
Last year, the Women's World Championships was held in Haarlem (Netherlands), which was the first that the event was held in Europe.
The next Championship will take place next year in Surrey, British Columbia (Canada).
| Sites Men's World Championships since 1966 |
| Host | Country | Year(s) |
| 4 | Canada | 1988, 2009, 2015, 2017 |
| 4 | USA | 1968, 1980, 1984, 1996 |
| 3 | New Zealand | 1976, 2004, 2013 |
| 2 | The Philippines | 1972, 1992 |
| 1 | Czech Republic | 2019 |
| 1 | Mexico | 1966 |
| 1 | South Africa | 2000 |
The 16th Men's Softball World Championship, scheduled for 2019, will be played in Prague and Havlickuv Brod in the Czech Republic.
This will mark the first time that the Men's World Championship comes to Europe!
This year, the 14th edition was held in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Canada).
The next World Championship will take place in 2017 and also will be played in Canada, with Whitehorse, Yukon, being the host.
Also awarded were two Junior World Championships.
The Junior Men's Softball World Championship of 2018 will be played in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan (Canada), while the Junior Women's Softball WorldChampionship of 2019 will be played in Irvine, California (USA).
The hosting of the 2017 Softball Division Congress was awarded to Gaborone, the capital of Botswana.
This will mark the third time that Africa has hosted the gathering of softball officials, following the 8th ISF Congress in South Africa in 1977 and the 1st WBSC Congress in Tunisia in 2014.
During the Congress, there was special moment of silence to officials within the softball world who passed, especially softball's 2nd Vice-President Jesus Suniaga (Venezuela) and WBSC Vice-President Reynaldo Gonzalez (Mexico).
Due to the passing of Mr. Suniaga, a special election was held for the vacant position of Second Vice-President.
Tommy Velazquez (Puerto Rico) was elected.
Also during the Congress, the Softball Hall of Fame Class of 2015 was elected.
That group includes Administrator Bob Stanton (Canada), Coaches Indalecio Alejandrez Mesa (Cuba), Eddie Kohlhase (New Zealand) and Mike Stapleton (Australia), Players Marissa Carpadios (Australia), Mike Harrow (Australia), Debbie Mygind (New Zealand), Dean Rice (New Zealand) and Lubomir Vrbensky (Czech Republic) and Umpire Neville Lawrance (Australia).
(October 21)
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