Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago have secured their spots within the 2025 Netball World Youth Cup, following spectacular performances on the Americas Netball World Youth Cup qualifiers held in Guadeloupe.
The younger Sunshine Women emerged as champions, remaining unbeaten all through the match and sealing their victory with a 54-29 win over the younger Gems of Barbados in Sunday’s last.
The younger Calypso Women of Trinidad and Tobago clinched the third and last qualifying spot by defeating Grenada 61-39 within the third-place playoff. Head coach Phyllis Thompson praised her Jamaican crew’s resilience, significantly highlighting their semi-final comeback towards Trinidad and Tobago, the place they rallied to a 40-33 victory.
Gifted and decided group of ladies
“I’m tremendous excited and elated for the ladies. They did the onerous work coming into the match, and it confirmed on the court docket. In fact, we weren’t at all times flawless; we made our fair proportion of errors alongside the way in which, however an important factor was to safe the win right here after which work on tightening up our play going ahead,” Thompson said. “We have now a really gifted and decided group of ladies, and it confirmed within the semi-final towards Trinidad once we have been down two targets. I reminded them that we’re nonetheless within the sport, and so they went out and gave it their all to return out victorious. So I’m very pleased with them, and like I mentioned, we are going to return to the drafting board and work on what we have to for the World Cup subsequent yr.”
Regardless of falling brief towards Jamaica within the last, Barbados Netball Affiliation President Dr. Carmeta Douglin maintained a constructive outlook. She acknowledged the problem of closing the hole with top-tier groups like Jamaica however expressed optimism concerning the future, emphasizing the significance of structured growth.
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“Our Underneath-21 isn’t a nasty crew, however they nonetheless want plenty of work to get to the world-class degree, as you’ll be able to see. So we need to construct on Underneath-14, to maneuver to Underneath-16, to maneuver to Underneath-21, to maneuver to seniors. So we’re taking a look at an Academy, the place we’ve gamers in coaching all yr spherical, and transferring up by the age teams. So that is one thing we’re planning,” Douglin defined. “Jamaica has been there, they’ve executed that, and they’re getting much more follow, much more publicity, as a result of this Jamaica Underneath-21 crew would clearly be enjoying of their Tremendous League and enjoying with their seniors, who have already got a very good begin. So we have to get there, and it’s a constructing course of, and we’re working in direction of it.”
Thrilled together with her crew’s third-place end
Trinidad and Tobago’s Head Coach Kalifa McCollin-Lopez was thrilled together with her crew’s third-place end. “I’m very excited for the ladies. They might have labored onerous to achieve right here, and I do know they’re actually joyful proper now,” she mentioned. Regardless of powerful losses to Barbados and Jamaica earlier within the match, McCollin-Lopez emphasised that these experiences served as beneficial classes for the crew’s improved efficiency within the third-place match.
“By way of these losses, we’d have needed to be taught and develop from them; to not put themselves down an excessive amount of as a result of we had the sport following, however to tidy up the errors and stick with the duty. I feel that’s what we went on the market and tried to do,” she famous.
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These three Caribbean groups will now be part of pre-qualified groups New Zealand, Australia, England, Fiji, and host nation Gibraltar for the Netball World Youth Cup, scheduled for September 19–28 subsequent yr. The competitors will function 20 groups in whole, with South Africa, Malawi, and Zambia qualifying from Africa, and Malaysia, Singapore, and Sri Lanka from Asia. The remaining six groups are but to be determined.
The achievements of Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago underscore the area’s rising prowess in netball and set the stage for an thrilling World Youth Cup in 2025.
