The town of Beek, near Maastricht in the southeastern Netherlands, will host the inaugural WBSC International Blind Baseball Cup on August 20th and 21st. This will be the first Blind Baseball competition ever sanctioned by the WBSC.
Six national teams will participate in the event:
Group A Netherlands, Germany, USA
Group B France, Italy, Great Britain
The top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals, and the winners will compete for the title.
France has participated in most editions of the Mole Cup, a blind baseball competition organized in rotation in Germany, Italy, and France, which paved the way for the launch of this International Blind Baseball Cup.
The French delegation will be led by Tom Nagel, President of the Federal Sports and Disability Commission at the Federation and President of the WBSC Paralympic Commission.
France Team Selection
Athletes
Houyam Bouzerda
Nejla Fersi
Marco Perra
Jean-Louis Torres
Tidiane Diakitea
Najib Lamjaj
Claudia Silva Navarrete
Coaches/Assistants
Emmanuel Luxi
Arnaud Balou-Tchichelle
José Alberto Peña Arríela
Rodrigo Enrique Mantilla Balza
Jean-Marie Boulay
Blind Baseball is a mixed discipline. Alfredo Meli, a former player of the Italian national baseball team, launched this version of the sport in 1994. Each team consists of five visually impaired players, one without a disability, and 4 to 5 non-disabled assistants.
International events represent a step forward in the WBSC’s goal of making blind baseball a discipline recognized by the International Paralympic Committee.
