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Fengtai ready for ISF World Championship
(BOCOG)
Updated: 2006-08-22 16:51
The ISF Women's World Championship will be held from August 27 to September 5 at Fengtai Softball Field, which is the first to have been built and to be put into use among the Beijing-based Olympic venues.
The game organizers updated the press on the details of the preparatory work at a press conference on Monday.
Venue Operation
A venue operation team was appointed in charge of event preparation and operation. The first batch of 31 team members entered into the venue on March 6. They include the venue director, six deputy directors, a secretary-general and 23 managers. The staff of the team will total 481, including 374 volunteers during the tournament.
The team has formulated venue operation plans and operation manuals for each department. It also set up links with different departments of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).
The team completed athlete name-entering, procurement of sport equipment, drew up the competition schedule and completed media accreditation, with a total of over 400 journalists at home and abroad accredited. Three media were designated TV broadcasters for 28 competitions.
The team also made up a detailed service scheme to meet the needs of International Softball Federation officials, athletes, technical officials and media personnel in the areas of accommodation, security, transport and medical services.
Sport organization
Athlete name-entering was launched at the end of February and ended on June 26. A total of 272 athletes from 16 teams were registered, along with 96 coaches and officials, 39 ISF officials and guests, 40 technical officials and 95 observers. Visa was issued for the participating teams.
There will be 66 competitions with preliminaries scheduled for August 27- September 2, finals for September 3-5 and medal-awarding on the night of September 5. The participating teams are to engage in pre-game training from August 21-26.
ISF appointed one technical representative and 24 international technical officials for the championship while the Chinese Softball Association sent 15 local technical officials.
ISF president and other official visited China in April, June and July to check the preparation for the event.
The procurement of sport equipment ended in April and all the needed equipment was in place.
Venue construction
Construction on Fengtai Softball Field started on July 28, 2005 with a total surface of 15,570 square meters and a capacity of 13000 spectators.
The venue includes a main competition field, a back-up field, two training fields and a functional area. All the major facilities were completed on July 20, 2006 with the rest inaugurated so far.
The concepts of "Green Olympics," "High-tech Olympics" and "People's Olympics" were embodied through the design of the project which features technology in rain water recovery and treatment, photovoltaic and optic-thermo technologies as well as the use of water permeable materials.
Surroundings' beautification
A peripheral logistics working group was set up to look after image and look, security, transport, spectator guide, urban facilities, commercials regulation and community relations.
Three "urban villages" were pulled down, with 40,000 square meters of land vacated and used for the construction of a parking lot, 12 basketball courts, two tennis courts and a fitness ground for nearby residents.
Five roads were constructed or renovated to facilitate transport around the venue. A greening effort made 35,000 square meters of land covered by trees and grass.
Fengtai -- home to softball and baseball players
The Fengtai Sports Center was the venue for the 1990 Asian Games and 1992 women's softball World Cup competitions. Softball has a history of up to 20 years in the district, located in western Beijing. The Fengtai Softball and Baseball School, founded in 1995, has trained many players for Beijing and the national team.
The organizers took advantage of the opportunity to spread awareness on softball. They formulated communication and training plans, pledged to offer meticulous services, integrated softball into curricular materials in elementary and middle schools and made efforts to prepare knowledgeable spectators for the 2008 Olympic Games.
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