Olympics inspire White Sox at world champs

The White Sox are expecting this week’s world women’s softball championships to be the toughest in years with Olympic Games qualifying berths at stake and oppressive heat to handle in Japan.

White Sox catcher Melanie Gettins believes this to be the toughest of the five world tournaments she has attended since 2010.

She said a lot of nations had raised the ante since learning softball White Sox was back on the captain Ellie Tokyo 2020 Olympic Cooper. Games schedule after being mothballed for the last two Olympiads.

‘‘When you look at the seedings, our section is a very solid section. Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Mexico are putting a lot more into programmes than they did five or six years ago. That’s the allure of the Olympics.’’

Most softball insiders expect Japan and the United States to fight it out for the gold medal at the world championships in the Chiba prefecture.

But White Sox head coach Kevin Gettins said there was a general feeling that any of the teams ranked third to 12th in the world – could ‘‘beat each other on any given day’’.

WBSC world rankings can be a little misleading because they take into account senior and junior international performances.

The White Sox finished eighth at the last two world championships, but are now ranked 11th.

Their section includes the United States (ranked 1st in the world), Chinese Taipei (5th), Central and South American champions Puerto Rico (6th), Mexico (7th), the Netherlands (8th), the Philippines (15th) and South Africa (35th).

Puerto Rico and Mexico have boosted their squads by signing players from the strong American college softball system.