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Three players at launching
 Nederlandse tekst
HAARLEM (Netherlands) -
The official website for the XIV ISF World Championship Softball was launched on Thursday, December 15, at the clubhouse of Olympia Haarlem, on whose site the event will be organized in 2014.
Head Coach Craig Montvidas and players Dagmar Bloeming, Femke van Dusschoten and Chantal Versluis represented the Dutch National Softball Team, as well as Team Manager Paul Boonstra.
Peter van der Aart, Chairman of the Organizing Committee, hosted the presentation of the new website.
Also attending the launching were Jack van der Hoek, the Alderman for Sports of the Municipality of Haarlem, and KNBSB-boardmembers Frits Mulder and Karen Vroonhof.
The organisation of the 2014 World Championship was awarded to the Netherlands on October 30, duringh the ISF Congress in Oklahoma City (USA).
The event will be held in the city of Haarlem from August 13-23 and it will mark the first time the Championship takes place in Europe.
This will be the fourteenth World Championship in history since the first one was organized in Melbourne (Australia) in 1965.
The 14th World Championship will be staged at the Nol Houtkamp Sportpark in the city of Haarlem.
The complex is the home field of Olympia Haarlem, which plays in the Dutch big league and in 2011 qualified for the Play-Offs for the Dutch championship-title.
The complex is named after Nol Houtkamp, who was the Head Coach of the Dutch National Softball Team from 1969 through 1983, a 15-year period that still stands as a record.
In 2010, Olympia Haarlem successfully organized the tournaments of the European Cup and European Cup Winners Cup at the same time at the same site, which was a first in European Cup-history.
It will mark the first time that the World Championship will be organized in Europe.
Since 1965, the World Championship was held four times in North America (Canada 2, USA 2), four times in Asia (Japan 2, China 1, Taiwan 1), twice in Oceania (Australia, New Zealand) and once in Central America (El Salvador) and South America (Venezuela).
In 2012, the 13th edition will be held in Canada, which then will set a record for being the host for a third time.
Ga hierheen voor de officiële website van het WK 2014
Peter van der Aart talks with Dagmar Bloeming, Haarlem's Alderman Jack van der Hoek,
Femke van Dusschoten and Chantal Versluis
Team Manager Paul Boonstra, Dagmar Bloeming, Femke van Dusschoten,
Chantal Versluis and Head Coach Craig Montvidas attended the launching of the website
(photos made by Robert-Jan de Vries)
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