JUNIOR WORLD
SPY report from
Nanjing
China
First day games of the VII Junior Women’s World
Championship were cancelled by a cold, driving rain.
A revised schedule which includes 6 games for 12 of the 14
teams was announced at a mid-morning meeting between the International Softball
Foundation, the local organizers and the team coaches.
Games will begin Monday at
9am
, and games have now been scheduled for Friday, which had been reserved as a
rain day.
Defending champion
Japan
and
Thailand
have their first games on Tuesday. The
second field will not be usable before Tuesday, putting all Monday games in the
Stadium.
The
United States
has a very good draw. Three of the
projected contenders –
Japan
,
China
and
Australia
– are in the opposite bracket.
The revised schedule:
Monday
United States
vs
Netherlands
Chinese Taipei vs
Argentina
China
vs
Philippines
Australia
vs
Korea
Czech
Republic
vs
New Zealand
Canada
vs
Russia
Tuesday
Chinese Taipei vs
Thailand
Korea
vs
Philippines
Argentina
vs
United States
New Zealand
vs
Japan
Netherlands
vs
Thailand
Australia
vs
Czech
Republic
Russia
vs Chinese Taipei
Japan
vs
Korea
Canada
vs
Netherlands
Czech
Republic
vs
China
Wednesday
Argentina
vs
Canada
Australia
vs
Japan
Thailand
vs
United States
China
vs
New Zealand
Russia
vs
Argentina
Netherlands
vs Chinese Taipei
Philippines
vs
Japan
New Zealand
vs
Australia
Korea
vs
China
Canada
vs
United States
Thursday
Czech
Republic
vs
Philippines
Russia
vs
Thailand
New Zealand
vs
Korea
Argentina
vs
Netherlands
Thailand
vs
Canada
United States
vs Chinese Taipei
Philippines
vs
Australia
Japan
vs
China
Friday
Korea
vs
Czech
Republic
Netherlands
vs
Russia
Philippines
vs
New Zealand
Thailand
vs
Argentina
Japan
vs
Czech
Republic
United States
vs
Russia
Chinese Taipei vs
Canada
China
vs
Australia
Saturday-Sunday
Elimination Games
Monday
Final Four: Championship Games
Tournament
Potpourri
Jocelyn McCallum, the
Australian strikeout artist, who showed her top form here in a scrimmage against
Canada, informed USA players that she will definitely enroll in the University
of Arizona this coming January. Having
watched Joss perform, her addition to an already potent Wildcat lineup will have
an impact on the Pac 10 in 2004.
Homework has
been the order of the day for the USA Team.
Because of a scheduling snafu, the team arrived Friday, a day late, and,
with the rain, has so far has spent more time studying under the watchful eye of
USA
coaches than practicing.
Shopping was the
preferred alternative Sunday afternoon for the
US
, Argentine and
Netherlands
teams, the option seeing the historical sights of
Nanjing
. Also, while some of us enjoyed
some traditional Chinese dishes at the resort hotel’s buffet today, tonight
the team opted for Pizza Hut, which won out narrowly over MacDonald’s and KFC.
Nanjing still
has vestiges of the first Ming dynasty under Hong Wu and of the reigns of Sun
Yat Sen and Chiang Kai Shek, but the Nanjing of today is a sprawling metropolis
of more than a million people, and the decision of the government to make
Nanjing one of its economic enterprise zones is evident – from the multitude
of barges plying the Yangtze River to the skyscraper bank and insurance
buildings, and the many modern hotels. The
teams are all staying at a resort about an hour’s drive outside
Nanjing
, but close to the softball stadium at the
University
of
Science
and Technology.
Getting Here would
try the patience of a saint. After a
two-hour flight to
Chicago
, and a 13-hour flight to
Beijing
on a 777 – most uncomfortable airplane – one encounters the psychologically
daunting task of maneuvering through the transit facilities of the
Beijing
airport. Long gone are the days
when you simply flashed your diplomatic passport, after a comfortable flight in
first class, and you were met by people who took care of your bags and drove you
to your hotel. Now, you claim all
your luggage off the baggage feeder, go through customs and immigration, then
find the appropriate desk for China Air and have your baggage rechecked to
Nanjing, then, you stand in line to pay a 50 yuan airport tax, and, finally, go
back through security and walk forever until you go down to a very crowded
waiting room where China Air is boarding dozens of flights on about a 10 minute
basis. Hopefully, in all of this,
you have stayed out of the clutches of the “expediters.”
Very official looking men who offer to help you work the airport tax
line, the baggage check-in, seat assignment and security check-in routines.
As you start to thank them, they ask for a fee for their services –
ranging from $20 to $40. A few
parents paid the fee, and some of us paid what amounted to a tip for a baggage
handler. You stand in a miserably
cold rain on the tarmac at
Beijing
waiting to board. The Chinese may
understand the queue, which is what the braided hair piece was called, but have
no concept of waiting in line. First
past the gate seems to be the law of the land – even running past you on the
ramp leading up into the airplane where the seats are all reserved anyhow.
Finally, you are in
Nanjing
, and it’s raining so hard you can’t see anything outside the taxi windows
– mostly because, for about 90 minutes, there is nothing much to see until you
enter downtown
Nanjing
. A number of us were told by an ASA
official that the Grand Hotel was the ISF headquarters hotel; it is, but for the
disabled games which are being held in the stadium across the street.
The softball games are in a stadium about an hour from the Grand Hotel.
Those of us with computers have paid rental fees for LAN Internet
connections, and, since our cell phones don’t work here, many of us have
coughed up $70 US to rent cell phones. All
this travail will be forgotten at
9am
Monday when the
USA
squares off against the
Netherlands
.
Don Porter, ISF
executive director, welcomed all the teams at a coaches meeting Sunday morning.
Porter commented briefly on preparations for the 2004 Olympics in
Athens
and expressed optimism that, in 2005, the IOC will finalize softball’s
selection for the 2008 Olympics in
Beijing
.
End
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