The eight-team field has been announced for the Europe/Africa Olympic qualifier that is set to take place later this month.
Six European teams that finished atop the Women’s Softball European Championship tournament field this week will participate in the Olympic qualifying event. That group includes a pair of teams ranked in the top ten in the world, in Italy (#9) and the Netherlands (#10).
Joining the Italian and Dutch national teams in the field at the Qualifier are Great Britain (12); Czech Republic (15); France (26); and Spain (35). The sextet of teams emerged from a crowded, 23-team field at the European Championship.
The Olympic Qualifying event will be held in the Netherlands from July 23-27, where the six European teams will be matched up with a pair of teams from the African continent, #28 South Africa and #43 Botswana. The two African teams previously advanced to the Olympic qualifier from a four-team continent qualifier held in May.
Seeding for the Europe/Africa qualifier will take place on July 10th. The tournament will begin in a round-robin format and the teams will compete for a sole Olympic berth in the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Japan and the United States have already clinched berths in the six-team Olympic field for 2020. In addition to the Europe/Africa qualifier that will award a berth, two other qualifiers will be held this summer: Asia/Oceania in late September that will award one berth and the Americas from August 25-September 1 that will award two berths in the Olympic Games.
