The Micronesian Games Organizing Committee has decided to stick with its decision to feature slow pitch softball instead of fast pitch softball for women in the 6th Micronesian Games this summer.<\/p>\n
This according to Sports Committee chairman Tony Rogolifoi, who brought up the issue during last Thursday\u2019s monthly Northern Mariana Islands Amateur Sports Association meeting at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium conference room.<\/p>\n
The MGOC had earlier informed all delegations from the region that the Micro Games will feature competition in athletics, baseball, basketball, beach volleyball, canoeing, golf, tennis, Micronesian all-around, men\u2019s and women\u2019s slow pitch softball, men\u2019s fast pitch softball, swimming, table tennis, triathlon, underwater fishing, indoor volleyball, and wrestling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe decided that there would be men\u2019s fast pitch and men\u2019s and women\u2019s slow pitch,\u201d said NMASA president and MGOC chairman Michael White during the meeting. \u201cThe original justification of this was that number one, we didn\u2019t have enough fields to allow all four competitions and still build in some slack time in case of rain. The second consideration was for the CNMI\u2026the same people that would play fast pitch are ones going to play slow pitch, so we were either [going to] have to double up or weaken one or both teams. So we decided we\u2019re just going to go with women\u2019s slow pitch and not women\u2019s fast pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n
White explained that the decision provoked a reaction from the other delegations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re coming back to us and asking to reinstate fast pitch instead of slow pitch,\u201d said Rogolifoi.<\/p>\n
While the issue was up for discussion, White also questioned if changing the sport at this point in time will be good for the CNMI.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how much of a fuss making the change is going to cause, but it doesn\u2019t seem to me it would be very great, but it would be a change at a fairly late date which in and of itself, doesn\u2019t look great for CNMI\u2026like we cant make up our mind. [But] those are just some of the considerations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy with keeping it where it is. It\u2019s our Games and we decide what sports we want. On the other hand, if you want to recognize the fact that fast pitch softball is what ought to be played from an international standpoint, from a standpoint of developing women in sports, that\u2019s certainly in consideration, but this is our Games and we decide,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Rogolifoi had earlier informed the MGOC that eight teams had expressed interest in fast pitch softball, while five were interested in slow pitch.<\/p>\n
After all was said and done, Rogolifoi said the MGOC will stick with the original move of having slow pitch softball for women.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, fellow MGOC official Rose Igitol informed those at the meeting that she had a conversation with the CNMI softball coach, who she said explained to her that the strength for the CNMI in women\u2019s softball is slow pitch.<\/p>\n
The Micro Games will be held from June 23 to July 2 on Saipan, with about 1,300 to 1,500 athletes and officials from the CNMI, Guam, Marshall Islands, Chuuk, Pohnpei, Yap, Kosrae, Palau, Kiribati, and Nauru expected to compete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Micronesian Games Organizing Committee has decided to stick with its decision to feature slow pitch softball instead of fast pitch softball for women in the 6th Micronesian Games this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99686\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}