Blu Girls face lowly Thais in Asian softball

Favorites, including the Philippine Blu Girls, are highly expected to have a grand day today when they meet lowly, inexperienced rivals at the start of the 12-nation, week-long eighth Asian women’s softball tournament at the Rizal stadium.

No less than the country’s top hurler, veteran Maria Corazon Soberre, will take the mound when the Blu Girls open their bid against lowly Thailand at 1 p.m. in one of six games scheduled for the day.

Defending champion China, Athens Olympics bronze medalist Japan, South Korea, North Korea and Chinese-Taipei should have no problem winning their opening assignments, too, in this tournament serving as the Asian eliminations for the 2007 world championships in Shanghai.

Winner in the last four stagings of this meet, the Chinese battles Indonesia at 10 a.m. while perennial finalist and three-time titlist Japan also has an easy game in store for it when it meets Hong Kong in the opener at 8 a.m.

South Korea takes on Singapore at 3 p.m., Chinese-Taipei battles India at 5 o’clock and North Korea opposes Malaysia in a night game at 7, rounding out the meet’s inaugural matches.

A short, simple opening ceremony is scheduled at 12 noon with world softball federation president Don Porter, Philippine Olympic Committee head Cito Dayrit, International Olympic Committee representative to the Philippines Frank Elizalde and Softball Confederation of Asia head Brian Choo heading the special guests.

According to former Manila Congressman and Asa-Phil. president Harry Angping, this marks only the second time in the history of the league that 12 nations will compete and dispute the three world championship slots allotted for the Asian region.

"We’re grateful that all 12 countries we’ve invited honored our invitation. We’re also thankful to our friends and sponsors who helped make this tournament possible," said Angping.

Blessed with a number of Athens Olympics veterans, China and Japan are heavily-picked to make it to the finals and eventually dispute the title for the fifth straight time in a heated rivalry that started in 1987.

Japan beat China for the bronze medal in the last Athens Olympics, behind the United States and Canada.