Caracas, Venezuela-The Venezuela host committee, IBAF and team representatives convened on Saturday for a number of meetings to determine the fate of the 2010 Women’s World Cup in Caracas and Maracay, Venezuela.
“It has been a long day of meetings with our players, the team representatives, as well as host and IBAF officials”, said Wayne Parro (Brooklin, ON), Hitting Coach for the Women’s National Team.
Tournament and IBAF officials, along with input from all participating teams have decided that the tournament will continue, but it will be played only in Maracay. All teams currently residing in Caracas will move on Sunday morning and play will resume Sunday afternoon.
“The safety of our players and staff was the single most important consideration today,” continued Parro. “We are happy to report this evening that the players are in good spirits and are looking forward to resuming play on Monday. We have a day off on Sunday and it will be good for us to relocate and relax. We will practice late in the afternoon and be prepared for a doubleheader on Monday.”
“Our staff and players were saddened by the departure of the Hong Kong team from the tournament. It is completely understandable how they feel and we expressed this to their coaching staff,” added André Lachance (Ottawa, ON), Field Manager for the WNT. “The Hong Kong staff felt that the tournament should proceed with the detailed additional safety precautions and relocation of the Caracas portion of the tournament, but their players could not continue without their teammate.”
The revised schedule has Team Canada playing The Netherlands at 10:30 am ET at Aviacion Stadium and Venezuela at 7:30 pm ET at Jose Perez C. Stadium, both in Maracay on August 16th. Canada will have a scheduled off-day on August 17th before the second round starts on August 18th.
Canada is currently 2-0 in the first round with wins over Australia (6-1) and Chinese Taipei (7-6).
