Inaugural under-12 baseball world championship opens in Taiwan

Jul 8, 2011, 13:26 GMT

Taipei - The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) launched the inaugural under-12 baseball world championship in Taiwan Friday as part of its effort to re-install baseball as an Olympic sport.

President Ma Ying-jeou and IBAF president Riccardo Fraccari opened the event at the Tien-Mou Stadium in Taipei, with Ma throwing out the first pitch in the Taipei-Cuba match.

Ma welcomed all the overseas teams, and vowed to promote baseball because it is Taiwan's national sport with six millions fans on the island.

Group A comprises Cuba, Japan, Brazil, Ecuador, Lithuania, Hong Kong and Chinese-Taipei.

Mexico, South Korea, Venezuela, Italy, the Philippines and Indonesia are in Group B.

The 13-team tournament will be held in Taipei July 8-17, with the IBAF is rallying support to re-install baseball at the 2020 Olympics.

Baseball was an Olympic sport 1992-2008, but has been cut from the 2012 and 2016 Games.

But on Sunday, the International Olympic Committee's Executive Board agreed to put baseball on its shortlist of eight sports under evaluation for possible inclusion onto the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.

The final decision on which sport will be included will be voted upon in September 2013 at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires.