PLANT CITY, Fla. -- International Softball Federation President Don Porter and Amateur Softball Association/USA Softball Executive Director Ron Radigonda announced today that the 2010 ISF Women’s World Championship originally scheduled for July 16-26 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (USA) will have to be pushed back to a later date and new location due to a conflict with the XXI Central American & Caribbean Games July 17–August 1 in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

The softball competition at the multi-sport event includes three teams (Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Venezuela) that have also qualified for the 2010 Women’s World Championship. In order to ensure complete participation for the sport at this marquee event – which will mark the 45-year anniversary of the first ISF Women’s World Championship – the event needed to be moved to a later date and different site.

“We are disappointed to not have the World Championship in Oklahoma City, but know that it is imperative for our sport to have worldwide participation and a complete field of 16 teams. We don’t want to leave any countries out,” said Porter. “The ISF is already working hard to find another host country and we will make a date and site announcement as soon as possible.”

“The Amateur Softball Association and USA Softball were really looking forward to hosting the world championship in Oklahoma City, but understand the importance of a complete field of participating countries from every region of the world,” said Radigonda. “Our 2010 stadium schedule is booked and unfortunately the July dates were the only feasible dates to host the event. We are pursuing other opportunities for a smaller event (July 22-26) with some participating teams to compete in Oklahoma City prior to departure to the world championship. This event will be announced at a later date.”

Team USA is the defending ISF world champion, having won the eleventh edition of the world championship in 2006 in China when they broke a scoreless tie after five innings, scoring three runs in the top of the sixth en route to a 3-0 victory over Japan in the gold medal game.

For more information please contact ISF Director of Communications Bruce Wawrzyniak at brucew@internationalsoftball.com, +1 813 864 0100 or +1 813 453 8762 or ASA/USA Softball Director of Marketing and Communications Julie Bartel at jbartel@softball.org +1 405 425 3463.

About the ISF
The ISF is the world governing body of the sport as recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF). Softball (women's fast pitch) made its Olympic debut at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. There are 128 affiliated countries in the ISF and millions of participants in the sport worldwide.

About ASA
The Amateur Softball Association, founded in 1933, is the National Governing Body of softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. The ASA has become one of the nation's largest sports organizations and now sanctions competition in every state through a network of 77 local associations. The ASA has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 210,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than three million. For more information on the ASA, visit www.asasoftball.com.

About USA Softball
USA Softball is the brand created, operated and owned by the ASA that links the USA Men’s, Women’s, Junior Boys’ and Junior Girls’ National Team programs together. USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting these four National Teams to compete in international and domestic competitions. The USA Softball Women’s National Team is one of the only two women’s sports involved in the Olympic movement to capture three consecutive gold medals at the Olympic Games since 1996. The U.S. women have also won eight world championship titles including the last six consecutive as well as claimed two World Cup of Softball titles. For more information about USA Softball, please visit www.usasoftball.com.