The country’s premier national women’s softball team, the PH Blu Girls, are shaping up to clinch a spot in the highly-anticipated 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Amateur Softball Association of the Philippines president Jean Henri Lhuillier assured that the Blu Girls are working hard towards this goal through rigorous daily practice and coaching sessions.
The long-time softball patron and Cebuana Lhuillier top honcho is confident that the Blu Girls have a huge chance of going to the Olympics based on their impressive runs spanning two years now.
“Our Blu Girls have consistently worked hard and been improving tremendously in the past two years. They’ve also proven that they can go head to head with some of the world’s powerhouse teams such as when they toppled then world number 3 Canada, as well as Australia which is ranked currently ranked seventh, and world number 6 Chinese Taipei.” said Lhuillier.
The Blu Girls created quite a stir in the World Cup and Canada Cup in 2017, when they beat Canada and Mexico twice and also stunned Australia and Chinese Taipei, all of whom are part of the world’s top six softball teams.
The Blu Girls also just came from a fourth-place finish in the recent 2019 Asia Cup Women’s Softball Championship in Jakarta, Indonesia, earning them a spot in the WBSC Softball Asia/Oceania 2019 Qualifying Event to be held this Sept. 24 to 29 in Shanghai, China.
The Cebuana Lhuillier-backed softbelles flew to the US last July to participate in the USA Softball International Cup, where they competed against powerhouse teams such as world number 2 Japan, No. 4 Puerto Rico, No. 5 Mexico, No.6 Chinese Taipei and No. 20 Peru.
Currently ranked 13 in the world, the Blu Girls are comprised of pure-blooded Filipinas from different provinces in the Philippines, who were discovered through ASAPHIL’s various grassroots programs. A number of Filipino-American players will also join the team to further strengthen their overall gameplay.
“The tournaments we participated in this year gave us the exposure we needed to improve our skills and develop strategies to ensure that we will be to play at our full capacity. We’ve assembled a great team and we are all hopeful that we qualify for Tokyo,” said Blu Girls head coach, Randy Dizer.
The Blu Girls are slated to face world no. 8, China; no. 11 New Zealand; no. 23 Korea; no. 6 Chinese Taipei; no.7 Australia; no. 37 Indonesia; and world no. 42 Hong Kong at the Asia/Oceania Qualifying Tournament. The team that will emerge as victor will move on to play at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics alongside world no.2 Japan to represent the Asia/Oceania region.
