Photo: Sunshine Girl Shanice Beckford goes high to catch a ball during game two of three game series against Barbados. Beckford is a part of the twelve member squad selected for the Netball World Cup in Australia in August. Centre Paula Thompson looks on.
Kingston, Jamaica: Netball Jamaica is proud to announce the Sunshine Girls team to the Netball World Cup to be staged in Sydney, Australia from August 7th to 16th, 2015.
The twelve-member team is led by Nicole Aiken-Pinnock (Captain) with Paula Thompson (Vice Captain), Romelda Aiken, Sunshine Gilrs, Nicole Aiken-Pinnock, Shanice Beckford, Kadie-Ann Dehaney, Nicole Dixon, Stacian Facey, Jhaniele Fowler-Reid, Anna Kay Griffiths, Sasher-Gaye Henry, Khadijah Williams, and Vangelee Williams. The reserves are Shantal Slater and Adean Thomas, who will continue to train with the team until its departure.
The final team selection was made after the just concluded Assimilation Training Camp that included the three-game friendly series versus the Barbados Gems where the Sunshine Girls emphatically swept the series 3-0.
On making the announcement, head coach Minneth Reynolds said, “The twelve selected have certainly earned their spot on this team as all the ladies worked tirelessly throughout the selection process.
“The others truly deserved to be a part of this team but we only need twelve. We know that this team will represent us with pride and dignity, so let’s give them our support.”
The Sunshine Girls depart Jamaica on July 30th for a three-day camp in Canberra, Australia before heading to Sydney. Fourth ranked Jamaica has drawn Pool B along with England, ranked third, Scotland, eleventh, and thirteenth ranked Samoa. The Sunshine Girls open the Netball World Cup competition in the first game versus Samoa on Friday, August 7th at 10:50am AEST (local time Thursday August 6th 7:50pm EST).
For Jill McIntosh, Netball Jamaica’s Technical Director, “This team represents a blend of youth and experience. The ladies have worked extremely hard to this point and with seven weeks to go, they will continue to put in the necessary work.”
About the selection process, she added, “All seventeen members of the Sunshine Girls squad have made the selection of the final twelve very difficult indeed — which is a good thing for Jamaica.“
The five players not selected will join the Elite League All-Star team to compete against the Sunshine Girls in a two-match series as part of the team’s continued preparation for the Netball World Cup. The All-Star Weekend matches take place on Friday, July 3rd and Sunday, July 5th, 2015.
The Sunshine Girls enter the Netball World Cup competition on a winning note after copping the bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow behind Australia and New Zealand and a successful 2-1 Test played against England in January of this year.
The 2015 Netball World Cup (NWC2015) is formerly known as the World Netball Championships. The event was first held in 1963 and is the premier event for international netball — held every four years. Jamaica is one of four nations to have competed in every NWC event since inception. Currently ranked fourth in the world behind Australia, New Zealand and England, the Sunshine Girls have placed consistently among the top five in international competitions for over 50 years. Netball is Jamaica’s most successful team sport with multiple podium finishes as high as second in Fast5, third at the Netball World Cup and the Commonwealth Games and first in the Caribbean.
The 2015 Netball World Cup is contested by the top sixteen qualifying nations and will take place over ten days from Friday, August 7 through Monday, August 16 with 64 matches held at the Sydney Olympic Park in Australia. The qualifying nations are Australia, New Zealand, England, Jamaica, Malawi, South Africa, Wales, Scotland, Fiji, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Uganda and Zambia.
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