International Softball Federation (ISF) President Don Porter said on Tuesday that he was optimistic about softball's reinstatement in the 2016 Olympic Program, especially with the help of the Beijing Games.

"It's going to be important to us as the IOC will monitor our Games," Porter told Xinhua in an online interview.

"I think that (the IOC) will go towards supporting us to a certain extent in a positive way," he added.

Softball, introduced to the Atlanta Olympics 1996, was voted out of the 2012 Games along with baseball.

The ISF launched the "Back Softball Campaign", aiming to reinstate the sport in the 2016 Olympics with next year's vote at the 121st session of International Organising Committee (IOC).

According to an ISF blueprint, spreading the sport's popularity is the core of the campaign. The ISF is pushing for an increase of national and regional softball associations from 128 to 160 by 2016 Olympics.

"We will continue to document and look towards making improvements that are necessary to get the IOC's attention," said Porter. "We want them to see that our sport is on a very positive level and whatever improvements that have been set out in the past have been noted and we are making them happen."

After knowing all of the over 300,000 tickets for the softball games in Beijing had been sold out, Porter said it was a major step for the reinstatement of the sport.

"This is wonderful but not unexpected news that confirms that softball is an immensely popular Olympic sport," said Porter.

"It means that tens of thousands of people in China and from all around the world have chosen softball as their Olympic sport of choice.

"As a result, we're optimistic that the IOC will take notice of the universal appeal of softball and vote in (October) 2009 to reinstate our sport to the 2016 Games," the president continued.

Porter is confident of the competitiveness of the sport in Beijing and competence of the organizers.

"Many of the teams have greatly raised their own standards and I'm optimistic that we can have some good games from the competitive side," he said.

"Besides, I think that things are coming along quite well in preparations in my last visit to Beijing in April, especially for the infrastructure. The venue is excellent and of the four Olympic Games that softball has participated in, this venue is by far the best one."

The eight Olympic teams that will compete at the refurbished Fengtai Softball Field from Aug. 12-21 are Australia, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Japan, the Netherlands, the United States and Venezuela.

(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2008)