The competition was staged in cooperation with the Fenix Club of Valencia, the local Rangers softball club and the Valencia Adapted Sports Federation (FESA), which specialises in tailoring sport competition for physically challenged individuals.

RFEBS says the initiative is the first part of an overall strategy to establish a Wheelchair School of Softball in Spain.

Its aim would be to organise training and regular competitions and help to increase access to sport by providing another attractive option for individuals with physical challenges to enjoy sport and be empowered by it.

The sport of wheelchair softball is well established in the United States, where national championships are regularly played.

Last December saw the inaugural European Wheelchair Softball Championships staged in Prague, where a number of club and representative sides took part.

The RFEBS says the competition in Valencia is the first step in a long term programme to establish wheelchair softball in the country ©WBSC



Commenting on the competition in Spain, World Baseball Softball Confederation co-President Don Porter said: "The WBSC congratulates the Valencia organisers for realising Spain's first wheelchair softball match.

"This is a great day for the 'new' type of athlete, not only in Spain, but in general.

"As we see with the Paralympic Games now being staged, part of the duties and power of sport is to reduce limitations in society, to evolve our definition of 'athlete' and to reach everybody equally, spreading the educational, cultural and social values of sport worldwide.

"The WBSC is honoured and proud to have softball at the service of such diverse and differently talented populations, and we are committed to growing more opportunities for everybody everywhere to engage in sport, and in both baseball and softball."

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