Bajan Gems keen and confident ahead of qualifiers

By Morissa Lindsay

The Barbados senior national women’s netball team are confident of their chances at the Americas Netball World Cup Qualifiers scheduled to commence Sunday, October 16th to 22nd at the National Indoor Sports Centre in Kingston, Jamaica.

Barbados will compete for a chance to earn their place at the 2023 Netball World Cup in Cape Town and longstanding president of the Barbados Netball Association, Nisha Craigwell, said the team has trained hard and while they are currently ranked third in the Caribbean region behind Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago and 14th overall in the world, she said they have a group of talented players that are capable and will do their best to make the country proud.

Among those players Craigwell made mention of were Latonia Blackman who has the distinction of being Barbados’ most capped player as well as fellow co-captain Shonette Azore- Bruce also with a vast level of experience.

Coached by Margaret Cutting, the Bajan Gems will hope to put on a good showing against competing nations of the Americas. They are Antigua and Barbuda, Cayman Islands, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, United States of America and hosts Jamaica who are fresh from winning silver at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Jamaica have already qualified but the top two countries from the World Cup Qualifiers will be selected for South Africa next year and based on that Craigwell believes that the Bajan Gems will do well.

Barbados are no strangers to being in the running for qualification and as a country who occupied the top 12 spot in the past, she said as long as they have been able to play they stand a chance. “The problem is that we have not been playing but once we are able to play, we stand a chance of increasing our rankings again.”

Craigwell added: “We came back from the Commonwealth and immediately went back into training so we have been training and working hard.”

Squad: Latonia Blackman (co-captain), Shonette Azore- Bruce (co-captain), Samantha Browne, Damisha Croney, Brianna Holder, Teresa Howell, Tonisha Rock-Yaw, Faye Sealy, Sabreena Smith, Akeena Stoute, Tamara Trotman and Shonica Wharton

Reserves: Dayna Babb, Trishan Deane and Jada Smith. (morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb)