The first Africa Baseball Olympic Pre Qualifier set to begin in Accra, Ghana

The African Baseball Olympic Pre Qualifiers take off on Friday, 22 March, in Accra (Ghana). Three regional tournaments, with a total nine participating National Teams, will qualify six for the Africa Cup, to be played in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 1 to 5 May. The winner will be the first ever Africa Baseball Champion and will advance to the Europe-Africa Olympic Qualifier, to be staged in Parma and Bologna, Italy, from 18 to 22 September. This final tournament will qualify the winner to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, while the runner up will advance to the final qualifier, to be played in Chinese Taipei in early 2020.

Accra will host the three-team tournament of the Zone West. The hosts Ghana will face the National Teams of Burkina Faso and Nigeria (cover picture) and the best two will move on to play the Africa Cup in May.

The other two regional tournaments, also qualifying two for the Africa Cup, are Zone East (to be played in Nairobi, Kenya, on 5, 6 and 7 April; the hosts will face National Teams from Tanzania and Uganda) and Zone South (to be staged in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 27, 28 and 29 April; the heavily favoured hosts will face National Teams of Lesotho and Zimbabwe).

WBSC will support the African Baseball and Softball Association (ABSA) on the ground. The World Governing Body scoring and umpiring instructors will oversee the three regional tournaments.
WBSC will organise scoring and umpiring seminars just prior to the start of the tournaments. The first will happen in Accra on 21 March.

The Softball Africa Olympic Pre Qualifier is to be played in Pretoria (South Africa) on 10 and 11 May. Botswana, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and the hosts South Africa have accepted the invitation.
The tournament in Pretoria will admit two National Teams to the Europe-Africa Softball Olympic Qualifiers, scheduled from 23 to 28 July in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Related: Our first article on Africa Pre Qualifiers