Softball in China set to bounce back

JINGHONG, Yunnan province - Chinese softball has thrown off the hurt of Olympic exclusion and now sees its non-Olympic status as a good pitch to broaden the game's development.

"Missing the Olympic stage was definitely a big loss for the sport, but we have already reset our ambitions and want to bring the game to the public by promoting it in a broader way," Vice-President of the Chinese Softball Association (CSA), Jiang Xiuyun, told China Daily at the opening conference of the 2011 international slow-pitch softball tournament on Friday.

The amateur tournament, which pitched off on April 1 at the Nanjing New City softball training center at Jinghong, the capital city of Yunnan province's Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture, has attracted 10 teams and more than 200 players from Japan, Chinese Taipei and the Chinese mainland for the two-day event.