Squash Showcases Glass Courts
World Squash Federation president N Ramachandran is taking the sport’s 2020 bidding campaign to Mulhouse in France this weekend for the World Team Championships.
The WSF in tandem with the French Squash Federation and Mulhouse Squash Club claim the 32-nation competition will help showcase the sport’s Olympic credentials.
Three glass courts will be built at the Palais des Sports and "will enable spectators to be right at the heart of events and enjoy a great show".
Squash’s Olympic bid includes a proposal for a knock-out format men's and women's singles championships that would comprise 32 male and 32 female players.
A total of 130 athletes are taking part in the event that comes 10 days after the IOC shortlisted squash, along with wrestling and baseball-softball, for the one spot available on the 2020 Olympic program.
Ramachandran will then travel on to Lausanne next week on bid business.
On Friday, the WSF unveiled its latest bid ambassador in the form of leading British soccer referee Howard Webb.
"I'm delighted that squash has recently been shortlisted for consideration for the 2020 Olympic Games," said Webb, a FIFA-listed referee since 2005. "It is a truly athletic sport which is played in all corners of the globe – one which thoroughly deserves to be part of the Olympic Games program."
The IOC membership will make a final decision on which sport will join the 2020 Olympic Games at the Session in Buenos Aires on Sept. 8.
Wrestling Visits IOC
FILA Nenad Lalovic travels to Lausanne today on official bid business, Around the Rings is told.
Nine days after the sport was shortlisted for the 2020 Olympics along with squash and baseball/softball, the Serb will meet with the IOC to discuss recent changes to the sport.
Lalovic will spend much of the rest of the month working on various commissions approved by the recent FILA Congress, including the Women in Sports and Athlete commissions thought essential to the bid.
June also features a busy championships schedule, particularly for juniors and cadets. Tournaments include the Pat Shaw Cadet Schoolboy in Guatemala City from June 6 to 8, the Asian Championship Juniors in Phuket, Thailand from June 13 to 16 and the European Championships Cadet in Bar, Montenegro from June 18 to 23.
Also this month, FILA released its expanded world rankings for Greco-Roman and included the top 15 in each weight classification.
"Each month brings rankings in Greco, men's freestyle and women's freestyle and is causing a great deal of interest throughout the wrestling community as the September World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, will test the validity of these rankings in competition," FILA tells ATR.
Click here to view the complete rankings.
Baseball/Softball Tout International Broadcasts
The World Baseball Softball Confederation is promoting a summer full of youth and senior-level tournaments for the sports.
Both sports are traditionally played in the summer and will be included in numerous mutli-sport events in the coming months.
Softball’s largest and most-visible tournament, the College World Series for U.S. universities, ended on Wednesday.
Baseball’s under-12 world championships are scheduled for July 18-28 in New Taipei City, Chinese Taipei, and will have matches broadcast.
"The number of exciting quality baseball and softball youth and pro-level events being broadcast internationally leading to Buenos Aires will help showcase the tremendous interest in our sport, and offer great exposure to a new generation of boys and girls, motivating them to pick up a ball and a bat," WSBC co-president Don Porter said in a statement to Around the Rings.
His co-president Ricardo Fracarri added that the sport’s youth appeal "can be a valuable asset and offer unique advantages in addressing the ever-growing emphasis on engaging youth both in the short- and long-term."
Reported by Mark Bisson, Ed Hula III and Matthew Grayson
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.