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Baseball and softball axed from London Olympics

The IOC meeting in Singapore has decided today that Beijing 2008 will be the last appearance of baseball and softball at the Olympic Games for the time being. They have been dropped from the 2012 games in London, but are theoretically eligible for re-inclusion in the Microsoft Seattle Olympics of 2016 (remember where you hear it first!)

This is a pity from my point of view, as baseball is one of the few Olympic competitions which capture my interest.

A brief IOC announcement is here. Five other sports are candidates for inclusion in 2012: Roller Sports, Squash, Karate, Rugby (presumably the seven-a-side mutation) and Golf! Later today, the IOC Executive Board will decide whether to submit any of the five to the IOC session, which is scheduled to wrap up tomorrow.

Major upset in softball final

The unexpected happened in the Olympic softball final on Monday. That's right, Australia scored a run! Pity the USA made five...

Crystl BustosI watched the final live on SBS from about the 3rd innings onward. Team USA got on top very quickly and left the Aussies playing a forlorn game of catchup. Chrystl Bustos whacked a huge two-run homer in the top of the first, and before the inning was over, Lisa Fernandez scrambled home on a Melissa Carpadios error.

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