SPORTS> China
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SPORTS> China
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Chinese softball and baseball in limbo
By Tang Yue (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-30 10:02 JINAN, Shandong province: Standing on the National Games podium with a bronze medal around her neck, softball player Wang Lan had bitter-sweet thoughts running through her mind.
Sixteen days before the opening ceremony of last year's Beijing Olympic Games, the pitcher was told she had not been included in China's final squad. Two months ago, she learned the sport, which had been thrown out of the 2012 London Games, would not appear in 2016 in Rio, either.
"I will be 33 in 2020. It's too far away and who knows when softball and baseball will return to the Olympic family?" Wang, of the Jiangsu team, said. Meanwhile, Lu Wei, a pitcher who played at last year's Games and the Athens Olympics in 2004, felt the same feeling of loss. "I have experienced two Olympic Games and they can't be compared to any other event, no matter if it is a World Championship or the Asian Games," Lu said after leading Beijing to fourth in Jinan. "I'm not sure whether to continue or not. I can't find a lot of motivation now. I just want a rest," the 26-year-old said.
Although softball and baseball are on the agenda at the 12th National Games in 2013 in Liaoning, Xiao Tian, vice director of the State General Administration of Sport (SGAS) sent an ominous warning that the amount of events at the National Games would gradually be reduced. Non-Olympic programs, including softball and baseball, would appear to be at the greatest risk. Some provincial teams are already on the brink of extinction. "I just don't want to see it happen (dissolution of the team), where can the girls go?" Yu Yanhong, the coach of Gansu, which finished last at the Games, said in a quivering voice with tears in her eyes. They had only about 200 balls for training over the past four years and some of the 11-member squad only earned about 200 yuan a month as they were not "officially registered". Others earned a maximum of 2,000 yuan. |
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