Daraine Luton, Freelance Writer
Members of the young Sunshine Girls netball team are happy to be home after placing fourth at the World Youth Championships in Florida. - PHOTO BY DARAINE LUTON
YESTERDAY WAS one of the rare occasions when a Jamaican Netball team returned home without silverware.
But even so, Jamaicans who were at the Norman Manley International Airport when the Under-21s returned from the World Youth Netball Championships in Florida had encouraging words and broad smiles for the girls who placed fourth at the tournament.
The Joan Cargill-coached unit, after racking up seven straight victories enroute to the semi-finals fell to England 52-48 on Saturday and failed to make it through to Sunday's final. It meant that the country's ranking would fall from second but a win against the dethroned champions Australia would have seen them ending as the third ranked team in the world. It never happened as the girls who defeated the 'Aussies' 2-1 in a practice home series here in May lost 61-44 in the third place play-off.
The fact that Jamaica fell two places in the rankings and failed to carry home a medal has shocked many netball fans. What went wrong? is the question many are asking.
"Nothing went wrong. A lack of experience got the better of us but the girls tried hard and they did well," Cargill said on the team's return yesterday.
"It was just the inexperience and bad umpiring decision. They made some strange calls and that got the better of the players," Cargill said.
Like Cargill, the Jamaica Netball Association (JNA) president Sharon Donaldson said the young girls did well but she believed that a lack of experience and fewer resources worked against Jamaica once they reached the medal round.
"England and Australia, after we played them, had the opportunity to look at us when they went home because they do have the resources and so I am not surprised," Donaldson said.
STRENGTH TRAINING
Comparing Jamaica to the top three teams Donaldson said: "If we want to be up there we should work on strength training.
"Running up and down on the court we are good , we have good shooting skills, defensively we are pretty good but when I look on the top teams players' body shape and size they are much stronger," she said.
Meanwhile, Cargill said that despite the fall in Jamaica's ranking she has no reason not to hold her head high.
"It cannot be a bitter pill to swallow. It is just that we had a team that was young. None of them have been at this stage before. The teams before retained five players from the previous World Championships. We had some experienced players but those girls were not able to join us. The girls we carried to the Championships played well and I am proud of them," Cargill said.
Jamaica were expected to benefit from the services of Kadian Kentish, Kameika Sherwood and Tiffanie Wolfe, all of whom have youth championship experience but injury and school commitments forced the JNA to go ahead without them.
