The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) has conducted a week-long Baseball5 workshop in Senegal, aimed at developing the discipline on the continent in advance of the 2026 Youth Olympic Games.
Baseball5 is on the Dakar 2026 programme, with the Youth Olympic Games set to be the International Olympic Committee’s first event ever held in Africa.
The workshop took place in Somone, 65 kilometres south of Dakar, at the beach resort’s Olympafrica centre.
Officials from Olympafrica centres in Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, Uganda, Zambia and Nigeria – as well from Somone itself – took part, receiving training from Baseball5 instructors Daniel Atemo, Andrea D’Auria and Chedli Mokrani.
As well as Baseball5, the officials were introduced to Mini Baseball.
Mini Baseball is a WBSC discipline aimed at children aged six to 10, using a soft ball, batting tee and easy-to-carry plastic bases.
Baseball5 is a pitcher-free discipline which requires only a rubber ball to play and no bat, so is designed to bring baseball to previously inaccessible areas.
Any playing surface can be used and hitting is done by hand.
As well as Dakar 2026, it will also be played at the 2023 African Beach Games in Tunisia.
The workshop consisted of introductions to the disciplines, analysis of the rules, training sessions and games.
The workshop is the fruit of an agreement between the WBSC, Olympafrica Foundation and Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) to promote baseball and softball in Africa, signed in October during the Association of National Olympic Committees General Assembly.
“Thanks to the partnership with Olympafrica and ANOCA, we will also extend the programme to other centres across Africa and continue growing baseball and softball across the continent,” WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari said.
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