Griffiths aiming to make her mark at World Champs

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

World Netball Championships (WNC)-bound player, Anna-Kay Griffiths, has been carving out a name for herself as one of the Sunshine Girls' most talented young players.

Unlike many other members of the squad who have been selected for this year's championships in Singapore, Griffiths never represented the country at the youth level, despite leading her high-school team, Denbigh High, to two Inter-Secondary Sports Association All-Island Netball titles.

However, the 23-year-old Griffiths, who plays goal shooter and goal attack positions, rose to national prominence as a senior member of the Windalco Super League team in 2005. Griffiths' hard work and dedication finally paid off, when she was selected to represent Jamaica in a three-Test away series against World Champions, Australia and New Zealand.

Standout player

Since then, the 5'6" player has not looked back. Griffiths was among Jamaica's standout players in their exciting 1-1 draw against Australia in January. She followed that up with an exceptional performance in a three-Test match against archrivals England, as the Jamaicans won the series 2-1.

"I am feeling great and I think that I deserve to be here because I worked very hard and I trained hard as well, and so this is my reward now," said Griffiths.

"I am looking for great things at the championships because this is the biggest achievement of my career," said the smiling, soft-spoken Griffiths. "I am going to make my family and Jamaica very proud," she asserted. "I hope we can just continue to work very hard so that we can bring home the gold medal."

She continued: "I think that we can win this championships because I think that if we put our minds to it and go out there and play our style of game, I know that we can do it." Griffiths added that since being drafted into the national set-up, she has worked really hard to push her game to another level.

"My fitness level has improved a lot more and my ball skills and awareness on the court have also improved," said Griffiths. "You can expect great things from me at the World Championships because I am very focused on this and I am going definitely to do my best," she said.

Leading the way

Griffiths, an admirer of former national player Simone Forbes, gave credit to her club coach Winston Nevers and also senior members of the national team for helping to guide her along the way.

"The senior players have always shared their experiences with me, and they also let me know when I am wrong and how I must fix it," she said. "The vibe in our team is very good and all the players get along very well because we are like sisters," Griffiths reasoned.

Griffiths stated that she would like to follow in the footsteps of her teammates Romelda Aiken and Kasey Evering, by playing in the ANZ Netball Championships.

"I would love to play in the ANZ Championships," she said. "I know that a lot of scouts will be down there watching the games and I am going to do my best and hope that this is good enough for them to select me for one of their teams."

Continuing she said: "This is a competitive league and if can get the chance to play in this competition, it will be a major achievement for me."