The Dominican Republic manager José Canó says his team is "dreaming" of winning a first ever gold medal at the WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup 2024, when is takes place in Barranquilla and Cartagena de Indias, Colombia from 16 to 25 August.
Ranked No. 9 in the world, the Dominican Republic are making their fourth appearance in the competition, which is entering its 20th edition including 14 editions of the World Youth Baseball Championship, having a previous best result of a silver medal in 1994 followed by an 11th place finish in 2011 and sixth in 2018.
“We are ready, we have worked hard to win a medal at the WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup in Colombia,” Canó said. "We can dream with the gold medal.
“We have been working constantly with these boys since the Americas Qualifier, which took place last March here in our country," continued Cano. "The players knows each other very well, and we know that we are not alone, we will face 11 teams with the same dream - to be crowned world champions."
The Dominican squad continue training at the Amaurys Nina Academy until their departure to Barranquilla on Tuesday, 13 August.
The Dominican Republic will play a pair of warm up games before departing to Colombia. On Friday, they will face a selection team from San Pedro de Macorís, while on Saturday they will face a team from the Banana Academy.
At the WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup 2024, the Dominican Republic is in Group A along with world No. 13 Colombia, No. 33 Guam, No. 14 Italy, No. 1 Japan and No. 12 Puerto Rico. Group B is made up of No. 2 Mexico, No. 20 Nicaragua, No. 7 the Netherlands, No. 34 South Africa, No. 5 Chinese Taipei and No. 6 Venezuela.
The first match for the Dominican Republic will be on Friday, 16th August against twot-ime champions Japan at the Edgar Renteria Stadium.
