Baseball: Florida in Mix For Americas Olympic Qualifier

(ATR) Speculation about the possible venue for the Olympic baseball qualifier for the Americas continues amid uncertainty.

According to the president of the Puerto Rico Federation, José Quiles, the World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC) tentatively set the date from June 6 to 10 to hold the Pre-Olympic in the state of Florida, United States.

"They sent us a communication, but it is not official yet. It will depend on how the COVID-19 situation is in Florida," Quiles told El Nuevo Día.

Florida has been the third hardest hit US state by the coronavirus. However, it has hosted "bubbles" for both the NBA and Major League Soccer (MLS) and is hosting the next edition of the Super Bowl on February 7.

Last week the arena for the Miami Heat, of the NBA. re-opened to fans for the first time since the pandemic began. To avoid contagion, the attendees had to undergo a coronavirus test with dogs trained to detect COVID-19.

Last November, the Puerto Rican federation had said that Havana, Cuba, was the city that the WBSC had in the plans to replace Arizona.

The southwestern U.S. state should have organized the Olympic qualifier in March and then in June, but both times the pandemic forced it to be postponed.

The postponement also reached the World Pre-Olympic based in Taiwan, which would award the sixth and final ticket to the Olympic tournament of the postponed Tokyo Games.

The Taipei Baseball Association of China reported in December that its Olympic Qualification will begin on June 16 in Taichung, central Taiwan, after receiving an official notice from the WBSC.

The event will take place June 16-20 at the Douliu Stadiums in Taichung and Yunlin County and will feature the home team, Australia, China, the Netherlands and the second and third place winners of the Americas tournament.

"Nothing is official until the WBSC announces it," a WBSC spokesperson told Around The Rings.

The Pre-Olympic of the Americas will have eight teams in two groups: the United States, Canada, Cuba, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Colombia and Puerto Rico. The winner will qualify for Tokyo.

To date, Japan, Israel, Mexico and South Korea have qualified for the Olympic Games.

In 2020 the WBSC was unable to organize a single baseball event while postponing its calendar to 2021, which it intends to start with the Women's World Cup from March 1 to 9 and the U-15 World Championship from March 13 to 22 in Tijuana, state of Baja California, Mexico.

The Baja California Institute of Sport and Physical Culture, the Mexican Federation and the WBSC have been in routine contact since the last postponement in November with the hope that the pandemic, sanitary restrictions and international travel warnings will improve.

But January has ended in Mexico as the worst month since the terrible disease began.

This week Baja California will remain on a red light. The number of active cases remains at the highest levels of the pandemic, with 1,309. Of that number, 584 are concentrated in Tijuana.

Mexico is the third in the world with the most deaths from this cause, behind the United States and Brazil.

However, a challenge and at the same time an encouraging signal for baseball lovers was sent this Sunday with the inauguration of the traditional Caribbean Series in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from Mexico City.

There it is already played with 45 percent of the capacity of the fans that the Teodoro Mariscal stadium usually houses on the Mexican Pacific coast. The stadium has space for 16,000 spectators but will only accept 7,200 under rigorous sanitary protocols to which athletes and the rest of the personnel involved in the event will also be subjected.

Sinaloa reported until the end of last week about 31,000 cases of Covid-19 and more than 4,460 deaths.

The champions of the winter leagues from Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Panama and Mexico participate in the tournament, with numerous players who will be seen in the next Pre-Olympic events and in the Olympic tournament where baseball will reappear, as well as softball, after absences in London 2012 and Rio 2016.

Written and reported by Miguel Hernandez

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