Taiwan to host Asian qualifiers for Beijing Olympics
olympicbaseball December 27th, 2005
Although there are almost two years away, based on Japanese baseball officials, Taiwan will host the Asian qualifying tournament for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
According to Kyodo News:
Taiwan will host the Asian qualifying tournament for the baseball competition at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing as planned, Japanese baseball officials said Wednesday.
Taiwanese baseball officials have notified Japan Amateur Baseball Association president Masatake Matsuda of the decision to host the qualifiers in 2007, although Japan had asked for the possibility of obtaining the hosting right.Japanese baseball officials had hoped that hosting the qualifying tournament will help ease the way for the participation of the country’s professional players.
Japan hosted the Asian qualifiers for the 1996 and 2004 Olympic baseball tournaments. South Korea staged the qualifiers for the 2000 Games.
This is the first time that Taiwan hosts the Asia qualifiers for Olympics, and the Olympic qualification system is change. At previously, first and second team for the qualifiers will advanced to Olympics, but for 2008 Olympics, only the championship of Asian qualifiers will get the tickets to Beijing, and the runner-up and third team need to compete Olympics qualifiers for the another chance.
