Chinese Taipei and Venezuela from Group A and Japan, France and Mexico from Group B joined unbeaten Cuba in the Super Round of the WBSC Baseball5 World Cup Hong Kong 2024 after a thrilling finale to the Opening Round at the Central Harbourfront Event Space in Hong Kong, China on Wednesday.
Defending
champions Cuba had already booked their spot on Tuesday and 2022 bronze medallists
Chinese Taipei and Venezuela joined them from Group A.
In Group B, 2022 silver medallists Japan topped the group also unbeaten with five wins from as many games followed by France and Mexico.
Five of the six Super Round teams finished in the top six in Mexico City two years ago. France finished ninth.
The final list
of Super Round teams wasn’t confirmed until the day’s afternoon/evening games with
Japan’s 2-9, 11-1, 10-0 win over Tunisia, Venezuela’s 9-5, 9-2 victory against Lithuania
and Mexico’s 2-4, 3-1, 8-2 triumph over China settling the places.
Wednesday’s
action certainly ramped up the intensity in the competition with four out of
the 10 games going into a tie-breaker (over the first two days there were three
tie-breakers) while 13 out of the 24 sets were won by five runs or less.
Stats leaders at the end of the Opening Round include Yik Shun You from Hong Kong on top of the batting averages with .744, Omar Diodene (FRA) and Briandy Molina (CUB) with the most number of runs (23 apiece) while Haila Gonzalez (CUB) leads the RBIs (24).
Spectacular Opening Ceremony on the first day of competition
Defending champions Cuba led Pool A with two wins from as many games after the first day with France and Mexico unbeaten in Group B
Cuba first team to book Super Round spot after riveting Day Two action
This is the second edition of the WBSC Baseball5 World Cup after Mexico City 2022
Cuba are the defending champions, with Japan having finished second and Chinese Taipei third
There are 10 teams returning from Mexico 2022. Australia and China have replaced Kenya and Korea
This the the first time a WBSC World Cup is staged in Hong Kong, China
Hosts Hong Kong finished 12th in Mexico two years ago
The next edition of the WBSC Baseball5 World Cup will take place in Italy in 2026.
The next WBSC Youth Baseball5 World Cup will take place in Mexico in 2025.
The number of teams participating in the next editions of the WBSC Baseball5 World Cup and WBSC Youth Baseball5 World Cup will increase from 12 to 16 teams.
Baseball5 will also feature at the Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2026
The Super Round and Placement Round schedule was announced on Wednesday with Australia and South Africa starting the Placement Round at 09:30 before the first Super Round game between Chinese Taipei and Mexico at 10:00 on Field 1. The teams take their results against the other Super Round teams through with them into the next round. Same applies for the Placement Round.
The big clash
on Thursday sees a repeat of the 2022 final with Cuba playing Japan at 13:00.
The Super Round and Placement Round will continue over Friday before Saturday sees the medal games taking place at 15:00 and 18:00.
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