The International Softball Federation has announced that
the next two Junior (Under-19) Women's World Championships will be held in 2013 in Brampton, Ontario (Canada) and in 2015 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (USA).
World Championships used to be held every four years, but with softball no longer in the Olympics, all ISF World Championships are now held every two years instead.
The tenth Junior Women’s World Championship in Brampton will take place from July 1-7, 2013, and the eleventh edition of the tournament will be played in Oklahoma City from August 7-16, 2015.
The ninth Junior World Championship was played last December in Cape Town, South Africa, with 15 teams in the competition.
The GB Junior Women's Fastpitch Team will be attempting to qualify for the 2013 World Championship when they play this summer in the European Junior Championship in Belgium.
Important opportunity
Next year's Junior World Championship will mark the first time that Ontario has ever hosted an ISF World Championship event, while the 2015 tournament will be the first time since 1996 that the USA has hosted a World Championship.
ISF President Don Porter said: “As we recently saw in South Africa, the Junior Women’s World Championship is the premier event for our young female athletes. The organisers in Cape Town did a first-class job and we are confident that Canada and the US will do the same next year and in 2015. We need them to because this is an important competition opportunity for that age category to be able to continue to test their skills against their counterparts from around the world.”