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Thursday 8th November 2007

Valuable preparation for Beijing

Australia’s baseball elite are hungry for Olympic Gold after being defeated by Cuba in the Gold Medal match at the 2004 Athens Games

To prepare for their Beijing assault, a squad of 24, which includes seven Olympic Silver Medallists, five US Major League players and 22 overseas professionals, are taking on the world’s best at the 37th Baseball World Cup in Taiwan this November (6 – 18)

Jon Deeble, Australia’s Head Coach, is confident that his team has what it takes to overcome the field of 16 nations to secure the World Cup crown

“We’ve beaten Japanese sides that have $200 million payrolls, and gone toe-to-toe with the US and the Cubans, who are always the benchmark on the international stage
We know we can win, but we also know we’ll have to be at our absolute best to do it,” he said

The Baseball World Cup is not an Olympic qualifying event but it is a valuable training opportunity for the team

“It's really good preparation for us (Australian side) to play some games together and get some experience playing international baseball, which is a lot different to professional baseball that a lot of the guys (in the team) play” said Glenn William, third base player and Major League star

The Aussies will have a tough draw - they will face Korea, Venezuela, Canada, The Netherlands, Germany and Olympic Gold Medalists Cuba, who have won a staggering 25 World Cup campaigns

To gain a Beijing berth, Australia must place in the top three at Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Taiwan, March 7 – 14, 2008

Performing well in Beijing is extremely important for the Australian side because baseball will no longer be on the Olympic Games sports program after the Beijing 2008 Games

“I’m lucky, this is my third Olympics and I still get chills now and then when I think about the Gold Medal game even though we lost” said outfielder Brett Roneberg
“Words can’t describe it and I get to look back on it now and then with photos and videos and DVDs and it’s just something that I know we can do and hopefully we can do it again in Beijing” he added