16/01/2018 1 Minute Read

Africa champion Botswana, 2nd Place South Africa qualify for 2018 WBSC Women’s Softball World Championship in Japan

PRETORIA, South Africa — No. 33 Botswana and No. 35 South Africa – have qualified to represent Africa at the 2018 WBSC Women’s Softball World Championship in Chiba, Japan, in August.

WBSC pushes global growth with African continental championship

PRETORIA, South Africa — No. 33 Botswana and No. 35 South Africa have qualified to represent Africa at the 2018 WBSC Women’s Softball World Championship in Chiba, Japan, in August.

Developing the sport across the continent and elevating more African nations to compete at the Olympic level is an integral part of the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s growth strategy for baseball/softball to remain an Olympic sport beyond 2020, while evolving from an emerging global sport of 200 million fans and athletes to an established global sport of 1 billion over the next decade.

The successful staging of the WBSC Women’s Softball World Championship Africa Qualifier in Pretoria, South Africa, is the latest milestone in a wave of steady growing popularity, new international competitions and development activities across the African continent.

In the Final, Botswana defeated host South Africa, 15-1. WBSC allocates two spots for Africa in the Women’s Softball World Championship.

Zimbabwe topped Lesotho, 15-8, to claim 3rd Place in the four-nation continental championship.

WBSC also organised equipment distributions in conjunction with the African qualifier.

Road to Chiba 2018

Fourteen of 16 nations have now qualified for the 2018 WBSC Women’s Softball World Championship. The world champion will be awarded 1,150 points and qualify for the Olympics Games Tokyo 2020.

Host: Japan
Africa: Botswana, South Africa
Americas: Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, United States of America, Venezuela
Asia: China, Chinese Taipei, Philippines
Europe: Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands
Oceania: Australia, New Zealand

No. 1 USA will enter Chiba as the defending world champions.

2018 African Women’s Softball Championship – Results

Botswana and South Africa both finished the double round-robin with five wins against one loss, suffering their lone loss to each other, to advance to the championship game: