The Egyptian Baseball and Softball Federation (EBSF) hosted its first-ever Egyptian Rural Development Baseball5 Championship - a four-day programme offering coursework and a tournament.

Around 30 coaches and umpires participated in the programme, as well as young boys and girls who were introduced to the game.

This initiative was jointly coordinated by the EBSF and the Directorate of Youth and Sports in the city of Beni Suef, and was staged under a nationwide programme for the development of countryside villages, launched by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

Trophies, prizes, commemorative shields and creativity necklaces were distributed by Reda Mahmoud Farghaly, President of the EBSF, after the tournament.

In December, the EBSF hosted the first Egyptian Baseball5 National Championship.

The African Baseball and Softball Association has also, in collaboration with the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), run a Baseball5 webinar series for coaches and officials in Burkina Faso this month.

There were a total of 33 participants from the Burkina Faso Baseball and Softball Federation (FBBS) taking part in the online course, according to the WBSC.

"We do appreciate this new discipline [of Baseball5]," FBBS President Ibrahima Sibore said back in November in an interview with the WBSC.

"We are looking forward to organising educational courses for coaches in our country with the presence of WBSC instructors."

Representatives from Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia have all participated in previous WBSC webinars on Baseball5.

The mixed-gender, urban-friendly discipline is set to feature on the programme for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympics.

An international calendar which includes the first Baseball5 World Cup taking place in 2022 has also been outlined.