Jamaica ready for action

Robert Bailey, Sunday Gleaner Writer

NEWTON, Singapore:Jamaica's netball captain Nadine Bryan said yesterday that the team is ready for action ahead of their opening match against South Africa in the World Netball Championships (WNC) at the National Indoor Centre in Singapore starting at 10 p.m. (Jamaica time).

Bryan told The Sunday Gleaner that they are confident, fit and ready to take on the confident Africans, who have vowed to dim the lights of the Sunshine Girls.

"We should do well against South Africa, but they said they can beat us, but we are not threatened by that as we have been working hard on our game," said Bryan, who is making her third consecutive appearance at the championships.

The Sunshine Girls, who are ranked number four in the world, two places above their African counter-parts, defeated the Australia Institute of Sports team 43-33, in their final warm-up match of the championship. However, Bryan noted that they are still working on improving certain aspects of their overall play.

One quarter at a time

"We have to take it one quarter at a time and make sure every quarter we are playing at a top level," she said. "We know that we have been having problems with our third quarter but it's something that we are working on," Bryan said.

Bryan, along with other team captains, was honoured by the International Federation of Netball Associations during a candle-lighting ceremony yesterday.

Bryan said she was very humbled by the award, which they look forward to every four years.

"I am honoured but it is nothing new because it occurs at every World Championship and so I was looking forward to it," Bryan added.