Girls look to shine at FastNet Championships

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

A very youthful Sunshine Girls squad left the island yesterday very upbeat ahead their participation in this year's World FastNet Championships, which will be held in Liverpool, England, from November 25-27.

The Jamaicans have done exceptionally well since the inception of the competition in 2009.

They captured the silver medal in 2009 and bronze in 2010.

However, the Jamaicans will be hard-pressed to repeat those performances, due to the unavailability of a number of their senior players. They are Romelda Aiken, Sasher-Gaye Henry, Althea Byfield (retired), Paula Thompson and Nicole Aiken.

Despite that, the Oberon Pitterson-coached team will be looking to prove their worth.

The Jamaican squad includes three members of the Under-21 team - Deneen Taylor, Vangelee Williams and Dhanyel Johnson.

Maureen Hall, high performance director of the Jamaica Netball Association (JNA), is confident they will make the country proud.

"I can assure you that we are going there to give a good account of ourselves and come back to Jamaica nowhere worse than we are in the world," said Hall.

"The Under-21 players are pretty inexperienced. However, we are giving them an opportunity to go to the tournament and hopefully gain some experience by their participation," said Hall, a former senior team coach.

"Ultimately, they will serve Jamaica well in the future," she added.

"I think the players are enthusiastic and I think that they understand clearly that our success will be based on teamwork,"continued Hall, who is also convener of the national selection committee. "We will work with the strengths and we will minimise the weaknesses and if we can do that well then we can give a good account of ourselves."

The Jamaican team, which will be captained by veteran player Nadine Bryan, also includes four members of the team that participated in the World Netball Championships (WNC) in Singapore earlier this year in shooters Jhaniele Fowler, Ann-Kay Griffiths and Jodi-Ann Ffrench-Kentish, along with Malysha Kelly.

Vanessa Walker, Tracey-Ann Robinson and Patricia McCalla, three players who did not make the trip to WNC, have also been named.

The team will be accompanied by JNA president Marva Bernard, assistant coach Annette Daley, team manager Andrea Anthony, team physician Dr. Primainand Singh and video analyst Antoinette Irons.

The other participating teams are defending champions Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa and Fiji.