Squash Boss Hails Innovations at Men’s World Team Champs
World Squash Federation President N Ramachandran says the recent Men's World Team Squash Championship in France underscored the sport’s Olympic credentials.
"The value of all initiatives and innovations introduced into squash over the past few years were brilliantly demonstrated in the presentation of the championship in Mulhouse [France]," he said in a statement.
"The French Federation, under the inspired leadership of president Jacques Fontaine, mounted a spectacle to be hugely proud of, clearly much enjoyed by all players, managers, coaches, spectators and the media, and I congratulate and thank them very much indeed for this."
Three all-glass squash courts greeted capacity crowds at the Palais Des Sports during the June 9 to 15 competition that featured players from 31 nations.
Players and coaches hailed the staging of the event.
"The set-up here is almost revolutionary – I've never seen anything like it before, with three glass courts side-by-side," said England's world No.3 James Willstrop.
"It's squash moving forward, proving that it can do things in different ways – something other sports can't do."
Squash is proposing a knock-out format men's and women's singles championships for inclusion in the Olympics. It would comprise 32 male and 32 female players.
WSF leaders are also busy at the ongoing Asian Juniors in Amman, Jordan after visiting Panama and Venezuela earlier this week as part of the sport's ambassadors program.
Squash, wrestling and baseball/softball were shortlisted by the IOC Executive Board meeting on the sidelines of the SportAccord Convention in St. Petersburg last month. A final decision on which sport will join the 2020 Games will be taken at the IOC Session in Buenos Aires on Sept. 8.
OBS, Wrestling Meet
Wrestling will consider putting point-of-view cameras on its referees at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
That’s one of the action points from Monday’s meeting between Olympic Broadcasting Services and the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles.
Among those in attendance at OBS headquarters in Madrid were German Wrestling Federation General Secretary Karl-Martin Dittman, OBS CEO Yiannis Exarchos as well as OBS Senior Coordinating Producers Makoto Nakamura and Kostas Kapatais.
"I would like to extend my thanks to FILA for this visit which gave us the opportunity to discuss the experience from broadcasting wrestling in previous editions of the Olympic Games and, more importantly, about ways to improve the presentation of the sport in the Olympic context in the future," OBS CEO Yiannis Exarchos told FILA President Nenad Lalovic.
According to FILA, the sport will also study making the weigh-ins a special event, adopting competitive gear that differentiates between Greco-Roman and freestyle disciplines as well as revamping its lighting, mat setup, time management and design to boost its event presentation.
"Just as we have modernized our rules, we must explore innovative ways in which we can better present our sport to a wide audience," Lalovic said. "We’ve got a great sport, but we must embrace new technologies, new presentations and let the world see the unique aspects of wrestling."
Also this week, French Wrestling Federation VP and Olympic bronze medalist Lisa Legrand is representing FILA at the IOC Athletes' Forum in Singapore.
Promotion in Japan
The World Baseball Softball Confederation says it has spent its time since being shortlisted for possible inclusion on the 2020 Olympic Program keeping stakeholders up to date and continuing to promote its candidacy.
In a statement to Around the Rings, WBSC officials say they have engaged professional baseball leagues all over the world to promote the sport’s candidacy.
Japan’s gold-medal winning baseball and softball teams from the Beijing Olympics participated in what WBSC officials call "a massive brochure handout" at a recent professional league game. The brochures highlighted the theme of gender equality between the sports in the campaign.
The IOC Executive Board approved the joint baseball/softball bid in May, which the federation says "has been a source of tremendous excitement and motivation in baseball and softball leagues around the world, as well as in neighborhood and community baseball and softball clubs and competitions and in schools."
Officials added they are continuing to develop the new Olympic baseball/softball tournament with the IOC.
Written by Ed Hula III, Mark Bisson and Matthew Grayson
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