Taiwan will not host the baseball qualification tournament for this year’s Tokyo Olympics as planned. That’s the word from Chinese Taipei Baseball Association Secretary-General Lin Tsung-cheng on Thursday.
The WBSC Baseball Final Qualifier 2021 had been due to take place in June at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium and Douliou Baseball Stadium in Yunlin County. But Taiwan’s recent outbreak of COVID-19 has made those plans impractical.
Lin says that the decision to give up the right to host the tournament was reached after discussions between several organizations. Those included the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association, the Taichung City government, and the Chinese Professional Baseball League.
Lin says the association notified the World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC) of their decision, prompting an urgent meeting on Wednesday evening. Following that meeting, the WBSC has announced that Mexico will host the tournament in place of Taiwan.
Lin says despite the difficulties posed by the domestic COVID-19 outbreak, he still fully expects Taiwan’s national baseball team to compete in the tournament.