Jamaica's Sunshine Girls will return to the island this afternoon, beaming with pride after securing the silver medal at the inaugural World Netball Series FastNet Tournament, after losing to New Zealand 27-32 in the final yesterday at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester, England.
The Jamaicans, who are this year celebrating 50 years of netball, rallied from a string of preliminary-round losses to the hosts, Australia and New Zealand, to storm back with a convincing 33-22 demolition job on the previously unbeaten England team, in the semi-final that was played earlier in the day.
The medal represents the team's highest placing at any international tournament at the senior level. Assistant coach, Annett Daley, praised the team's fighting spirit and added that the earlier losses helped them to make the necessary adjustments throughout the tournament.
Proud of finish
Speaking from the team's base in England, Daley, despite being disappointed with the finals loss, was proud of their silver-medal finish and also took time to highlight the players' overall contribution.
Said Daley: "It's unfortunate that we did not come home with the gold medal. But I'm happy with the silver (medal). It was a hard-fought game, but we made some turnovers during, the power play, and that cost us. After analysing all the games, we realised that we were making too many unforced turnovers and we were taking too many risks, and we corrected those, and that paid off for us."
"Paula (Thompson), Sasha Lynch and Simone (Forbes) got most valuable player awards for different games, so those girls stood out; but throughout the tournament all the girls played a part. You could see that they stood out in their own right. They all did well and did what was asked of them," Daley added.
Know the rules
In a keenly contested final, the Jamaicans kept in touch with their more fancied opponents for most of the game with quarterly scores of 5-6 and 10-11, before, according to Daley, a string of errors in the power play third quarter saw the New Zealanders pull away for a 27-22 lead.
Daley is, however, pleased with the team's adaptation to the adjusted rules and is looking forward to their next assignment.
"It was said by a few persons that Jamaica seems to be the team that actually know the rules and have adapted best to them. It wasn't hard for us. I'm happy with the way the girls played to the new rules. They did a very good job."
Upon arrival, the team will bounce straight back into action with the staging of the NCB Sunshine Series, which will feature visits from netball's top teams Australia and New Zealand.
The Jamaicans will play Australia on October 17 and 18 at the National Indoor Sports Centre before facing New Zealand on October 20 and 22 at the same venue.