Listen Now: 
Softball has been added to the next Olympics, and that means the sport needs to act now to have the prospect of bringing home a medal from Tokyo.
Experienced coach Venita Hokai says to be guaranteed a place, the White Sox women’s team needs a top three finish at the 2018 World Series.
It placed eight last month at the series in Canada.
She says a lot will come down to whether the New Zealand Olympic Committee and High Performance New Zealand give the sport the resources so players can train and play full time, and also get specialist coaching.
"We’ve got pitchers that can barely through 105km and some of the Americans are throwing 115km. We need to get some young pitchers up there into that speed or that category so pitching is an area we need to work on", says Mrs Hokai.
Venita Hokai says there are some talented younger players coming through, but not enough depth as yet.
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
RELATED NEWS
