August 19, 2016
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The World Baseball Softball Confederation today released the official Opening Round schedule for the upcoming LG Presents WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup 2016 in Gijang, Republic of Korea, which will begin on Saturday, 3 September.
A total of 44 international matches will be contested in Gjiang.
The 12 competing nations will each begin the competition For the Title of World Champion playing three games in three days as part of the Opening Round (group stage).
OPENING DAY
The four-time defending world champions Women's National Baseball Team of Japan will open against world No. 4 Canada.
The world No. 2 U.S. Women's National Team -- winners of the first-ever Pan-Am Games gold medal in women's baseball last year in Toronto -- will take on No. 9 Hong Kong on Opening Day.
World No. 3 Australia -- bronze medal winners at the last Women's Baseball World Cup in 2014 in Miyazaki, Japan -- and world No. 6 Chinese Taipei will meet on Day 1.
The Women's National Baseball Team of Pakistan will debut on the world championship stage against host/world No. 11 Korea.
European representative/world No. 7 Netherlands and unranked India will officially serve as Game 1 of the women's baseball flagship event, while No. 5 Venezuela and No. 8 Cuba will engage in an all-Americas contest to begin the tournament.
At the conclusion of the Opening Round, the top two nations from each four-nation group will advance to compete against each other in the -- four games in four days -- Super Round, while nations eliminated from the world championship competition will compete in the 7th-12 place Consolation Round.
The top two nations of the Super Round will compete in the world championship finale on Sunday, 11 September, at 18:00. The bronze medal match between the third- and fourth-place finishers of the Super Round will take place ahead of the grand finale at 12:00.
KOREA'S NEWEST BASEBALL MECCA
The premier women's baseball event will inaugurate the newly completed $US 18 million baseball theme park, Gijang Hyundai Dream Ballpark. The facility features four international standard baseball fields-of-play -- three of which will host games of the LG Presents WBSC Baseball World Cup 2016 Gijang.
"It's a tremendous honour and great day for women in sports to have the LG Presents WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup officially open a prestigious facility like Gijang Hyundai Dream Ballpark," said WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari. "WBSC is highly committed to ensuring that the athletes in our sport -- both male and female -- have more and more exciting opportunities to be showcased on the world stage. This new facility will also serve the needs of the local community, particularly as baseball's popularity in Korea, as the top spectator sport in the nation, is expected to see more record numbers in participation and fan-attendance in 2016."
According to government statistics, the number of youth baseball teams has been continuously increasing in Busan, which has led to "a severe shortage of baseball fields". Busan Metropolitan City, Gijang-gun County and Hyundai Motor Company partnered in 2012 to address the shortage and develop the baseball theme park for the community and bring events like the Women's Baseball World Cup to the region.
Hyundai has been granted the naming/advertising rights of the world's newest baseball complex for 30 years
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