Five of the top six national teams on the planet are coming to Surrey for a week of international women’s softball competition.
The defending world champion United States, silver medalist Japan, Venezuela and Australia will compete with Canada (bronze medalists at the 2010 world championships) in the International Invitational tournament at the 2011 Scotiabank Canadian Open Fastpitch International Championship, scheduled for July 9-17 at Softball City, Sunnyside Park and Cloverdale Athletic Park.
The tournament is one of four to be staged during the championship. A category for club teams is also part of the week-long competition, with university squads taking to the field.
Add those two competitions to the expanded Futures (under-18) and Showcase (under-16) divisions, and this year’s Canadian Open Fastpitch Championship will feature 80 to 100 teams with more than 1,300 players in the largest softball tournament in the country.
“This community has a great legacy of promoting and supporting women’s fastpitch events, and to be the home of one of the three largest tournaments in the world, drawing the top teams and athletes to this event, is extremely exciting,” said Canadian Open chairman Greg Timm.
“This is a huge event for a Canadian city to host and we know this will elevate the level of the sport even higher for our young athletes.”
Entries from Peru, Great Britain, Brazil, Columbia and Canada are confirmed for the Futures tournament, with entries from across North America confirmed for the Showcase event. Both competitions will have Gold and Select categories.
Local teams entered in the championship include the Delta Heat, Surrey Storm ’92 and ’93, and White Rock Renegades ’92 and ’94 in the Futures division, and the Heat ’95 and ’96, South Surrey/White Rock Thunder and the Renegades ’95 and ’96 teams in the Showcase category.
