Women’s World Championship takes place in Surrey, Canada, July 15 – 24. As the Championship is open to all countries, 30 National Teams have come to Canada to play for the title, or at least to create memories and gain more experience.

The first part of the tournament is over, all teams finished their round robins on Sunday. Top two teams from each round-robin pool advanced to the Championship Round, while the remaining teams were moved to the Placement Bracket.

Latest European Champions, Italy, secured the advancement to the Championship Round by beating Peru 5 – 0 and Kenya 15 – 0. They lost only to New Zealand in a nine-inning game. In the Championship round robin, team Italy needed to place second within its pool to go to the top eight. The Italians weren’t able to beat Puerto Rico (0 – 4), nor Venezuela (0 – 5), which leaves them among the bottom eight teams of the Championship Round.

Team Netherlands advanced to the Championship Round as the best team of its pool. The Dutch beat the Czech Republic 2 – 0 and the Philippines 7 – 2, they also recorded a forfeit win with Pakistan. In the Championship round robin, the Netherlands won their game against Brazil 9 – 3. They need to beat either Mexico or Cuba to make it to the top eight. According to Britt Vonk, the Dutch team came to the Championship with a goal to get a medal.

Great Britain came to Surrey with a strong team. In the Opening round, they only lost to Canada 0 – 3 and recorded two wins against Uganda (13 – 1) and Ireland (15 – 0). In the Championship round robin, team GB lost to New Zealand 0 – 6 and also to Japan in a high-level game 2 – 4. After the GB vs Japan game, British players talked about disappointment, having experienced the chance of beating the latest World Champions.

The Czech Republic, unlike the three previously mentioned teams, didn’t pass the round robin successfully. Two close losses; 0 – 2 with the Netherlands and 0 – 1 against the Philippines meant that the Czechs didn’t advance to the top 16. The Czechs now want to win the Placement Round. They started off well by beating Guatemala 6 – 1.

None of the remaining European teams made it to the top 16, but for most of these, competition in the Placement Round seems to be accurate. Many of the teams came to Canada to gather experience and create memories, so despite their early losses, they still have that something extra to fight for.

France lost to Venezuela and Japan (both scores were 0 – 7) in their round-robin games. However, the team has recorded two wins in the Placement round robin against India (9 – 2) and Ireland (11 – 0).

Austria lost to Brazil (0 – 11) and USA (0 – 15), but celebrated its first historical World Championship win 13 – 2 against team Israel. The team added another win in a tight game with Greece (5 – 4) in the Placement round robin. Team Austria would like to become the “best of the rest” and take the 17th place.

National Team from Greece only managed to win its game against Guatemala in the Opening Round. Greek players lost the previously mentioned tight game with Austria, but thanks to a forfeit win with Pakistan, they made it to the top eight of the Placement Round.

National Teams of Ireland, Israel, Serbia and Switzerland are attending their first World Championship in history.

Out of these teams, only Switzerland managed to win one game against Serbia (13 – 10). But winning games isn’t the main focus for these teams; it’s more about gaining experience and about reaching their own goals.

So it’s the National Team of the Netherlands, who’s keeping its chances on improving the historical best sixth place.

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/cover photo by Sergio Berdasko/

-Helena Novotná-