Sunshine Girls on court - World Netball Championships starts today in Singapore

Robert Bailey, Sunday Gleaner Writer

NEWTON, Singapore:A very confident Sunshine Girls team will bow into action at the World Netball Championships when they oppose South Africa in their opening game today at 10 p.m. (Jamaica time), 11 a.m. Monday in Singapore.

The Jamaicans are ranked fourth in the world, two places above the South Africans, and are favoured to win today's game. In the last two competitive series against teams that are ranked above them, the Sunshine Girls played to a 1-1 draw with number-two ranked and defending world champions Australia in January. They then defeated arch-rivals and third-ranked England in April.

"I think we are going to win the game," said Jamaica's head coach Oberon Pitterson. "We know that they have height in the circle, in terms of their shooters, and also we know that they played against Trinidad and Tobago and that series was pretty close, and so I think we have the edge over them," Pitterson said.

The Jamaicans have won both of their practice games since arriving for the tournament last Sunday - the last of which was an exciting 43-33 victory over the Australia Institute Sports team yesterday.

However, Pitterson added that she was not totally satisfied with their efforts because they have to play strong for all four quarters of the game.

"We have to be consistent when we play, because in both games that we played we started out very good in the first half and then we had a terrible second half," said Pitterson, who took over the reins as head coach of the Sunshine Girls from Connie Francis. "However, mentally, they are very focused and everyone is healthy and ready to go."

The Sunshine Girls, who won the bronze medal at the last tournament held in Auckland, New Zealand, are one of the favourites to secure their first hold on netball's most prestigious trophy. They have also retained six members of the team that participated in the last tournament. They are captain Nadine Bryan, vice-captain Sasher-Gaye Henry, Nicole Aiken, Romelda Aiken, Paula Thompson and Althea Byfield.

South Africa confident

Meanwhile, South Africa coach Elizabeth Kotze said she expected her team to put on a good showing against the Jamaicans.

"Our girls are well prepared and we have done our homework, and we are looking forward to our first match against Jamaica," said Kotze. "We have a very balanced team because you can't have any weakness when you compete at this level. We are very strong at both ends and solid all round, and we have a very good combination of youth and experience," Kozte said.

Kozte added that she is expecting a stiff challenge from the Jamaicans, but she is very confident they will do well.

"We have [been] studying video clips of them (Jamaica) and so we know what to expect. We are going into this match to be competitive and to give them a good run," Kozte stated.

The South African team has been boosted with the likes of veteran player and captain Amanda Mynhardt, vice-captain Zanele Mdodana, Bongiwe Msomi, Nokuthula Qegu and Leigh Ann Zackey.