Players and staff on the GB Junior (Under-19) Women’s Fastpitch Team arrived in Oklahoma City on Tuesday 4 August to prepare for the 11th WBSC Junior Women’s World Championships that begins on Sunday 9 August and will finish a week later.
Eighteen countries originally entered what is now an open World Championship tournament, to be played at the ASA Headquarters complex in Oklahoma City that hosts the annual College World Series and in the past has hosted Softball World Cup tournaments, but three countries -- Nigeria, Ecuador and Venezuela, have dropped out, which means the tournament has had to be reconfigured.
Round-robin
The tournament will now begin with an initial round-robin to be played in two groups -- one with seven teams and one with eight teams, with four teams from each group advancing to the Championship playoffs.
The GB Juniors have been drawn in the seven-team group with the defending champions Japan plus China, Canada, Argentina, New Zealand and Colombia. The GB Team, that finished ninth at its first Junior World Championships in Canada in 2013, just outside the playoffs, will need to win at least three games to make the playoffs this time around.
While Japan and Canada are bound to be tough games, China only finished one place above GB in 2013 and though New Zealand finished in fourth place, GB had a very tight game with them in Canada. Neither Colombia or Argentina competed in 2013, but in 2011, Argentina finished in 11th place.
The other group will consist of the USA, Chinese Taipei, Australia, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, the Czech Republic and Puerto Rico.
GB Junior Assistant Coach Liz Knight said: "After months of preparation, I'm really excited that we will now have the entire squad together. Regular check-ins with all our players, plus winter workouts such as the BSUK Academy and High Performance Academy programmes and three outdoor sessions a week over spring and summer mean our players are better-prepared as individuals than ever before. As a team, we are more highly-skilled, stronger and fitter than ever before. Now we have the chance to measure ourselves against against the best junior national teams in the world."
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Opening games
Round-robin games will be played over the first four days of the tournament, Sunday-Wednesday, 9-12 August.
GB will play only one game on Sunday 9 August against Colombia, probably at 12.00 noon (6.00 pm in the UK), though this is still to be confirmed.
On Monday, GB will play Argentina at 11.00 am (5.00 pm in Britain and will then play New Zealand at 3.30 pm (9.30 pm in the UK).
Tuesday will be a tough day, as GB will play Japan at 1.00 pm local time (7.00 pm in the UK) and then Canada at 5.30 pm (11.30 pm in Britain).
GB's final group game will be against China at 1.00 pm (7.00 pm UK time) on Wednesday, and then Championship and Placement Playoffs will run from Thursday through Saturday, with the Gold Medal game scheduled for 7.00 pm on Saturday evening (1.00 am Sunday morning in the UK).
All games from the tournament will be webstreamed free of charge and can be accessed through this link.
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Preparations
The GB Team of 15 players and six staff needed to get over their jet lag quickly, with just four days to train, bond and prepare for the World Championships in temperatures that are forecast to start off at around 36 degrees C and climb to over 40 degrees during the tournament.
The team scheduled morning and afternoon training sessions on Wednesday and Thursday, 5-6 August. On Friday, GB will play a scrimmage game against Brazil in the morning and train in the afternoon, then play a final scrimmage game against Colombia on Saturday morning.
Team activities and bonding sessions will also be held during the week.
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Team GB
The 2015 GB Juniors consists of 15 players, eight of whom are based in the UK and seven based in North America or Australia. Two players – Georgina Corrick and Lauren Evans – recently competed for the GB Women’s Team at European Championships in Holland, while four players – Laura Hirai, Alana Snow, Annecy Stevens and Niamh Walker – competed for the GB Under-16s at European Championships in Sardinia at the end of June.
The full team is:
Emmilee Blowers
Georgina Corrick
Ashleigh Carolan
Chelsea D'Avilar
Lauren Evans
Lucy Hall
Ella Henson
Laura Hirai
Amie Hutchison
Chelsie Robison
Alana Snow
Annecy Stevens
Imogen Thomas
Niamh Walker
Sian Wigington
The staff will be:
Head Coach: Rachael Watkeys
Assistant Coach: Liz Knight
Assistant Coach: Karlene Headley-Cooper
Pitching Coach: Joke van der Hulst
Team Manager: Simon Mortimer
Exercise Physiologist: Kim Hannessen
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