Jamaica’s Under-23 Sunshine Girls secured a 64-34 victory over Barbados to move to 4-0 at the Caribbean Games at the Laura Flessel Complex in Guadeloupe on Saturday.

Jamaica, who scored a massive 65-18 win over St. Vincent & the Grenadines on Friday, will play Trinidad & Tobago in their final game on Sunday.

T&T hammered Guadeloupe 112-5 on Friday before losing a nail-biter 38-37 against St. Lucia on Saturday.

St. Lucia, after suffering a 44-36 defeat at the hands of Barbados on Friday, were dominant on Saturday with a 20-0 win over Guadeloupe.

Jamaica’s Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sports is backing Netball Jamaica’s hosting of the Americas Netball World Cup Qualifier for the 2023 Netball World Cup to the tune of US$77,000 (JMD$12 million).

Minister Olivia Grange, the official patron of the event, made the announcement at the launch of the qualifier at the NCB Care and Wellness Centre on Phoenix Avenue in Kingston on Thursday.

“The Ministry and its agencies are providing ($JMD1.8M) to Netball Jamaica for team preparation, $2.5m for transportation and will be covering the cost of rental of the National Indoor Sports Centre where the qualifier will take place from October 16 to 21, 2022,” Minister Grange said.

Ten teams will be playing in the Qualifier for the two remaining places in the World Cup. Jamaica has already qualified by virtue of its number four world ranking, a fact of which the minister takes great pride.

“I am proud, all of Jamaica is proud of this first for Netball Jamaica; playing host for the staging of a Netball World Cup Qualifier,” Minister Grange noted.

“History will also be made when the next Netball World Cup, the 16th edition, takes place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, South Africa since it will be the first time that the tournament will be held on the African continent. South Africa has gained a reputation for the staging of world-class events so we can expect something extra special when they host the Netball World Cup.

“The upcoming Qualifier will certainly serve to project Netball Jamaica afresh to the nation.

“I am deeply moved that Netball Jamaica would see fit to honour me by asking me to be Patron for the Americas Netball World Cup Qualifier.

 “So who is a Patron and what is the duty of a Patron? A Patron is a distinguished person who gives financial or other support to a person, organisation, or cause. 

The most effective Patron will have a passion for what the person or organization does. Need I say more?”

The minister also suggested that Netball Jamaica needs to see their value if they are to convince corporate Jamaica to provide the needed support.

“Netball Jamaica will tell you that I have challenged them to reimagine how they see themselves. Their value is great and we need corporate Jamaica to come on board in a greater way to support them. I would love to see partners coming on board to provide a bus, sports gear and all the other services they need because I am sure that our Sunshine girls will give sponsors value for their money!”, she said.

“Sport and the opportunity to participate in sport at all levels is a right that we take seriously. Netball is a favourite pastime in Jamaica and one that is practised from the primary school levels in Jamaica. We know that through the work of the Institute of Sports (INSPORTS) we have netball competitions at the primary level. There is also competition at the high school and tertiary levels.

“We want to see the sport grow in Jamaica and continue to give our girls and yes, boys too, the avenue and outlet to express themselves and dare to dream to play at higher levels.

  “We anticipate that on the final day of the Netball World Cup on August 6, 2023, when Jamaica celebrates its 61st Anniversary of Independence, our Sunshine Girls will be one of the two teams competing for the title and that they will be the new champions of world netball.

 “Netball and our Sunshine Girls have always made us proud.” 

Jhaniele Fowler’s West Coast Fever defeated the Sunshine Coast Lightning 74-65 at the USC Stadium in Queensland in round nine of the Suncorp Super League on Sunday thanks to a perfect 66 goals from 66 attempts from the Jamaican goal shooter.

Fowler’s Fever now has seven wins from nine games to lead the eight-team table with 28 points

Jamaican goal shooter Shimona Nelson was on fire to help the Collingwood Magpies secure a 71-67 win over the Queensland Firebirds at the MyState Bank Arena in Tasmania.

Nelson scored 65 goals from 66 attempts to help the Magpies move to sixth in the table with 16 points from nine matches.

Goal defence Lattanya Wilson and goalkeeper Shamera Sterling each snatched three rebounds but they weren’t enough to prevent their Adelaide Thunderbirds from going down 40-54 to the New South Wales Swifts at the Ken Rosewall Arena.

The Thunderbirds are now seventh in the table with 12 points from nine games.

Jamaica and Queensland Firebirds goalshooter Romelda Aiken is expected to take part in the upcoming Suncorp Super Netball season despite recently announcing her pregnancy.

Aiken, who got married in September of last year to former Australian basketballer Daniel George, is just two matches shy of 200 appearances.  The goalshooter is now in the early stages of her pregnancy but still has her eyes set on the milestone when the season gets underway on March 26.

Aiken, at this point, remains an active member of the roster and the club has confirmed they have no plans to replace her.  Despite what is often described as the rough and tumble nature of the Suncorp Super League there is no policy preventing pregnant players from taking part in the competition.

“Romelda’s baby news is brilliant, and the club has been fully supportive of her playing right through until she’s ready to step away,” Firebirds CEO Kate Davies told The West Australia.

“Romelda was fully intending to play at Team Girls Cup, but due to COVID-affected complications, particularly around dehydration, it was deemed unsafe, seeing her ruled unavailable,” she added.

“Romelda is still fully contracted as part of our 10, and hence the club has no ability or desire to name a replacement until she formally withdraws from the team.”

Jhaniele Fowler scored 37 goals as the West Coast Fever defeated GIANTS 47-41 in the Suncorp Team Girls Cup at the Parkville Stadium in Melbourne on Friday.

West Coast Fever’s Jhaniele Fowler has been named Super Netball Player of the Year for the fourth year running at the Australian Netball Awards on Wednesday night. The towering Jamaican shooter finished the 2021 season as the league’s top goalscorer with 891 goals.

Fowler, 32, joined the West Coast Fever in 2018 and dominated winning the leading goal scorer award with 783 goals, which was then a record. She was also awarded the competition's player of the year title.

She won the leading goalscorer award for a second consecutive season in 2019 and capped off the year by becoming the first player in the league's history to win multiple Player of the Year awards.

Fowler would win her third consecutive Suncorp Super Netball Player of the Year Award after an outstanding 2020 season during a special online version of the Australian Netball Awards.

The 1.96m tall shooter, who had three games in which she shot 100 per cent from the field, was also named to the 2021 Suncorp Super Netball Team of the Year.

The team also included Trinidad and Tobago’s Samantha Wallace who made the team as Attack Reserve while Jamaica’s Shamera Sterling was a Defence Reserve.

Jhaniele Fowler scored 57 goals as Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls defeated England’s Roses 63-53 for a consolation victory in the England Roses Vitality Series that concluded on Sunday.

Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls were unable to get back on level terms against the England Vitality Roses, after suffering a heavy loss in the second match of the series in Nottingham on Saturday.

The lopsided 66-47 loss pushed the home team to an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-Test series, having won the opening match opening game of the series 55-45 last week.

In the first encounter between the teams, it was the Sunshine Girls that had led at the half, this time around a devastating England attack led by 8 goals after the first quarter, and defensively managed to restrict the Jamaicans to 6 points as they doubled their advantage for a 35-19 half-time lead.

Similar to the first match, the Jamaicans were plagued by numerous turnovers but managed to make inroads into the lead at the start of the third quarter.  The damage was, however, mostly done with England managing to give several non-regular players game time with the win all but secured.  The teams will play the final match of the series at the same venue tomorrow.

Sunshine Girls Head Coach Connie Francis is considering making changes to the team’s mid-court ahead of the second Test between Jamaica and England on December 4.

 This as she believes turnovers, especially those in mid-court was among the key factors contributing to why Jamaica lost 45-55 to England’s Roses on Sunday after having held a lead over the home team for the first half of their contest at the Copper Box Arena in London.

Jamaica led 27-25 at half-time but was outscored 16-9 and 14-10, in the third and fourth quarters, respectively, as England surged to a commanding victory.

Speaking with Sportsmax.TV after the team arrived in Nottingham on Monday, Francis also said the Sunshine Girls lacked match fitness and as a result, were not at their best in the second half. She also takes some of the blame for not adjusting to a few tactical changes England made during the game.

Notwithstanding those issues, Francis believes England are in a much better place than her team at this juncture.

“England right now is a better-conditioned team than us. They are an in-form team coming off a successful tour in New Zealand and they have a really good squad. Nevertheless, we took a really good squad but we have some players in our group that have not been playing netball for 18 months,” she said.

“So, for one, I don’t think we have reached our fitness goals as yet and, two, we lost our focus because we should have gone out there and capitalized in that third quarter.”

That said, Francis revealed that they are going back to the proverbial drawing board as they begin preparing to correct the errors made in the opening match of the three-Test series.

“We are in Nottingham now and we are going to a training session. Tomorrow we have another training session, we have a video session, so we have some days to also try some new persons in that mid-court area because at times I think out mid-court is a little too stagnant,” Francis said.

“Trying to get some players who have been there done that to add to that rotation and that didn’t help so it’s about moving out some other players from their comfort zone into that mid-court to see if we can get some more height and strength in because I think that having 27 turnovers wasn’t good enough and most of them were in that mid-court.

“If we had fixed some of those passes, some of those through-court plays, those feeds into our shooters then it was possible (the result) would have gone the other way around.”

Where Francis blames herself is that she didn’t react adequately to personnel changes England made in goal attack and goalkeeper positions, which made a significant difference.

“I think that possibly I could have done something a little different because when I looked at the tape I see where they had made a tactical change and I tried to fix it but it just didn’t happen,” she said.

“I thought that our defending team stood up extremely well for the most part but when England made those crucial changes and instruction was given, we didn’t rise to the instruction. So we are going back to the drawing board looking at where we have gone wrong and try to fix it.”

Considering the circumstances, Francis said she was proud of her team’s performance on Sunday.

“I am really proud of the girls and their effort,” she said. “They tried to stay with England for the most part but the continuous unforced errors, we just had to pay for them.”

Games two and three are to be played on December 4 and 5 at the Motor Point Arena.

England’s Roses took a 1-0 lead in their three-Test series against Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls after they rallied to win 55-45 before a packed Copper Box Arena in London on Sunday.

Jamaica started well, outscoring their opponents 11-10 and 26-25 at the end of the first quarter and half-time, respectively. Jamaica’s lead was largely down to outstanding performances from Kadie-Ann Dehaney and Shamera Sterling, who caused England’s shooters significant challenges in the first half.

England’s defensive players turned the tables against Jamaica after the interval Eboni Usoro-Brown kept Jhaniele Fowler quiet and forced multiple changes in Jamaica's attack-end as the home side took control of the game to outscore Jamaica 16-9 in the third quarter and 14-10 in the fourth to pull off a commanding victory.

Fowler scored 40 of 41 attempts for the Sunshine Girls, who also got five goals from Shanice Beckford.

Jo Harten scored 30 of 39 and Eleanor Cardwell 20 of 22 for the Roses.

England had lost four of their last five games against Jamaica.

The second and third Tests will be played on December 4 and 5 at the Motor Point Arena

History will be made at 2023 Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games scheduled to take place in San Salvador where the sport of netball will be contested for the very first time, thanks to the advocacy of the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA).

"Netball got, deservedly, our approval to take a seat at the regional table and with this accomplishment, the journey now begins to globalize the sport and the JOA stands ready to again play a signal role," said JOA President Christopher Samuda.

Samuda is a member of the Executive Board of Centro Caribe Sports which owns the games.

An established sport in English-speaking regional territories and now a staple on the sporting agenda of several Spanish-speaking countries, Secretary-General and CEO of the Jamaica Olympic Association, Ryan Foster, was never in doubt that the sport would transition.

 "I have the privilege of sitting on the Technical Commission of Centro Caribe Sports and from the get-go, I inked my finger and campaigned for netball for I was confident that the sport's credentials would result in a landslide victory," he said.

As the number of Olympic sports on the agenda for multi-sport games increases, the need for a non-Olympic sport to ensure that it is "first to market" becomes increasingly critical for entry to such events as the CAC Games.

 "Insofar as netball is concerned, we at the JOA understood that in order to become a resident of the household of multi-sport games of the Olympic movement, the sport had to muscle its way to first in the line and present, persuasively, credentials for occupancy,” Samuda explained.

Jamaica’s netball pedigree is well known and in the run-up to the 2023 San Salvador CAC Games, the JOA and Netball Jamaica in partnership with Centro Caribe Sports, will be hosting educational workshops and training sessions for teams from Spanish-speaking countries with a view to enhancing their skill sets and technical competencies in the sport.

"What is the value of knowledge and expertise if they're not shared in creating greater capital and opportunities for others in the sporting fraternity?" JOA Secretary-General and CEO Foster queried.

With the withdrawal of Panama City as host of the games, the Executive Board of Centro Caribe Sports moved quickly to re-start the bidding process to secure an alternative host and recently formalized the contract with the Government of the Republic of El Salvador, the municipality of San Salvador and the Local Organizing Committee.

There were no surprises at the National Indoor Sports Centre on Wednesday night when Jamaica demolished Trinidad and Tobago 73-22 to complete a sweep of the Margaret Beckford Sunshine Series.

Led by Jhaniele Fowler’s near-perfect shooting, Jamaica took a 2-0 lead over Trinidad and Tobago, after winning 64-32 in the Margaret Beckford Sunshine Series at the National Indoor Sports Complex on Tuesday.

Fowler, arguably the best shooter in the world, did not start as Sunshine Girls head coach Connie Francis chose to open with Gezelle Allison and Shanice Beckford. However, the pair of attackers were unable to sufficiently spur the Jamaican attack as the first quarter ended 12-8.

They fared slightly better in the second quarter and they extended the four-point lead to 10 to lead 24-14 at halftime.

However, once Fowler was substituted in at the start of the third quarter, the Sunshine Girls got an immediate lift and extended their lead to 22 and led 44-22 at the end of the third. Fowler would eventually score 36 goals from 38 attempts as Jamaica won by 32.

Allison finished with 13 goals from 20 attempts while Shanice Beckford scored 12 from 14.

Afisha Noel led the scoring for the Calypso Girls with 17 goals from 20 attempts with support from her captain Kalifa McCollin, who scored 15 goals from her 16 attempts.

Jamaica will go for the sweep tonight when the teams meet again in the final match of the series.

Sunshine Girls Head Coach Connie Francis is expecting a much better performance from her shooters when they play Trinidad and Tobago in the second game of their series at the National Indoor Sports Centre on Tuesday.

Jamaica demolished their Caribbean rivals 71-22 on Saturday night with Jhaniele Fowler leading the way with 43 goals. Defensively, Jamaica was stifling limiting their opponents to only six second-half goals in a comprehensive victory.

However, Francis was not pleased with certain elements of the Jamaican execution.

“I was a bit disappointed with the shooting. I thought we were more than capable of doing a better job,” said Francis, who said the only player who she would excuse was Shanice Beckford who has not played in 18 months.

“I thought Jhaniele was too casual. Her style has changed a bit since she began playing in the Super League. She is not catching or elevating as she usually does.”

Francis also believes the team needs to tighten up defensively.
“Trinidad was able to get the ball through from the Jamaica attacking area into midcourt and into their shooting area without much pressure,” she explained.

She said she plans to tackle those areas of concern before the next game on Tuesday.

“We have a training session today (Sunday) and another on Tuesday morning, these ladies are professionals playing in leagues abroad, we should be capable of making those adjustments,” she said.

The Jamaica men’s team will replace South Africa for the Sunshine Girls upcoming tri-nation series, which will also include Trinidad and Tobago.

Originally the three teams were expected to part in the series, which was scheduled to begin on October 9^th.  The fixture opponents have, however, been modified after South Africa pulled out of the series due to countries rising number of Covid-19 cases. 

With short notice to find a replacement, the decision was made to employ the assistance of the country’s male team.  The dates for the fixtures have now also been moved forward, with the opening game of the tri-series now expected to be on the 14^th.

The Jamaicans ranked fourth in the world, are expected to play against in a three-match series dubbed the ‘Vitality Roses Reunited’ set for London, in September.  Many of netball’s top teams will be looking to step up their preparations with the Commonwealth Games set to take part in Birmingham, England next year.  The Jamaican team has not played in international competitions since the World Netball Cup in 2020.