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Thursday, 01 July 2010 17:05 |
 The Venezuelan team couldn’t beat China. In spite of the 1-6 score-board, the South American heroes left with the gratitude of the seven thousand fans that crowded the Independencia stadium, in La Rinconada, after nine days of celebration.
In the end, the surprise was courtesy of President Chavez, who joined the girls for the last three innings of the match. Of course, the President got some smiles and a whole lot of gratitude.
“What more can one ask for? This World Championship has been phenomenal. Although the national team could not win today (Thursday), we are all here enjoying ourselves. It’s not everyday we have the opportunity of having the president of a country at a sports event.”
The quote is from Martin Jorge, press chief of the Softball Confederation of Argentina, who after the Venezuela-China’s game, reacted like an average Venezuelan: He stood up, applauded and, with a smile on his face, thanked the Venezuelan people for the event.
“Softball is still very small in Argentina. It does not have a lot of support. That’s why coming here and seeing seven thousand people at a stadium, and the president of a nation (Hugo Chavez), giving his support not only to the tournament, but to the players too, really is a very nice surprise, even though I am not Venezuelan. Sure, it is normal to smile.”
Jorge not only congratulated the organization of the event. He called it “spectacular”, described the stadiums as “majestic and magnificent,” summarizing, a pleasant experience. The behavior of the Venezuelan crowd played a role in that too. They gave some of their enthusiasm to the Argentine team.
“It’s just great to have the warmth and support of Venezuela on your side. The support by the President is at the same time surprising and marvelous. To see him after the game running the bases with the players is a way of putting the icing on the cake on a great performance by the Venezuelan team. All this deserves a big round of applause,” he said.
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Venezuela got applauses and President Chavez got smiles
