Jamaica's Sunshine Girls and New Zealand's Silver Ferns in battle.
NZ Herald
If ever Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls required a performance to add impetus to their charge of securing an historic Vitality Netball World Cup gold medal, it came in their historic 59-48 win over reigning champions New Zealand in their top Pool G clash at the Cape Town International Convention Centre in South Africa, on Thursday.
Captain Jhaniele Fowler shot a perfect 49 goals from 49 attempts and the defence produced one of its most consistent showings where applying pressure is concerned, as the number four-ranked Sunshine Girls topped their number two-ranked opponents for the first time ever on this stage.
Goal attack Shanice Beckford chipped in with nine goals from 10 attempts and Romelda Aiken-George the other goal from three attempts.
Maia Wilson led New Zealand with 31 goals from 33 attempts.
The Jamaicans, who extended their rich vein of form with this, their sixth-straight win at the tournament, will now have a day to rest and recover for their semi-final date with world number one-ranked Australia on Saturday. The Australians had earlier suffered a nail-biting final minute 55-56 loss to number three-ranked England, in their top Pool F clash.
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s title defence seems in jeopardy, as they will have to wait on the result of South Africa's match against Uganda, to see if they are through to face England in the other semi-final.
Fowler lauded her teammates for their execution of the game plan, for the most parts.
“Kudos to my team, we went out there and did what we had to do, and it all came together in the end. We knew it was going to be tough, but we played hard and more importantly, maintained our focus and it showed in the fact that we remained consistent and disciplined which is what we were aiming for, so I am very pleased,” Fowler said in a post-game interview.
Having never beaten New Zealand on the World Cup stage previously, the Sunshine Girls drew inspiration from last year’s Commonwealth Games meeting when they drubbed the Silver Ferns 67-51 on their way to an historic silver medal.
Though they have proven strong side when they get their full squad together, the Jamaicans had their shakiest start of the tournament on this occasion, but eventually found their flow and got going.
Of the two sides, Jamaica looked far more comfortable on attack in the first quarter, as they found the imposing presence of Fowler with consummate ease in the shooting circle.
The Silver Ferns, on the other hand, were made to battle for every pass and struggled to find any sense of flow in possession. That pressure resulted in them conceding multiple offensive fouls and, ultimately, a four-goal deficit on the scoreboard at 15-11.
This was the first opening quarter New Zealand lost in the tournament, but they again found the going tough in the second quarter.
Jamaica immediately shut down the Silver Ferns attack, as they delayed the passes to get the ball into the shooting circle. Once there, Ameliaranne Ekenasio's shot first up, was blocked and rebounded superbly by Shamera Sterling.
In fact, both teams defence proved too good to get past and forced multiple turnovers and missed shots in what was a messy period that New Zealand emerged strong from to quickly wipe out the four-goal gap.
From there, they evenly matched strides goal-for-goal, as both sides found their shooters with more ease.
But, as the second quarter seemed poised to end in a deadlock, especially after Jamaica lost Sterling to injury and a possible warning, the Sunshine Girls produced a late charge with two quick steals and passes to Fowler, who made no mistakes.
While New Zealand won the quarter 12-11, the Jamaicans maintained the ascendancy at half time, with a three-goal lead at 26-23.
Both sides were able to score more freely in the third quarter and Jamaica did well to open a five-goal lead at one point. But, unforced errors at the backend, allowed New Zealand to again close within two at 41-39, as they again outscored the Jamaicans 16-15 in that quarter.
However, any hopes the Silver Ferns harboured of finishing tops were dashed, as it appears the Jamaicans saved their best for the last quarter.
They applied consistent pressure in defence and mid-court, and that, coupled with quick passes into the shooting circle, allowed Fowler to score at will and open a 10-point gap, which was the Jamaicans biggest lead of the game.
At the end, they romped the quarter 18-9 and with it came the 11-goal win that solidifies their status as a gold-medal favourite. The last of their three bronze medals at this tournament, came in 2007.
Sherdon Cowan is a five-time award-winning journalist with 10 years' experience covering sports.
'Job not done' for Springboks after All Blacks triumph, says Kolisi
South Africa captain Siya Kolisi warned his team the job is far from done despite them rallying for a thrilling victory over New Zealand in the Rugby Championship on Saturday.
The Springboks secured a 31-27 win over the All Blacks at Ellis Park, coming from behind with two late tries from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Grant Williams.
The victory hauled South Africa onto 14 points in the Championship standings as they bid to end New Zealand's four-year stranglehold on the title, but Kolisi says there is still work to be done.
Addressing the capacity crowd in his post-match interview, Kolisi said: "We play for a lot but you people are our number one motivation.
"We appreciate you every single day. Please don't stop. When times are tough, please keep supporting us. We cannot do it without you.
"We respect the All Blacks. No matter what people say about them, when they need to turn up, they turn up. We believed in ourselves, we didn't panic, and we did what we wanted.
"They were catching us on the exit. After the first try in the second half, we picked it up. I'm really proud of the boys but the job is not done."
All Blacks captain Scott Barrett, meanwhile, was proud of his team-mates' efforts but admitted they had just fallen short of putting together a complete performance.
"Well done to the Springboks, it showed the class team they are," he said. "We weren't quite good enough. We were good for 62 minutes and it's an 80-minute game.
"There were two key moments after kick-offs where we couldn't quite get out of our half and they punished us. It was a huge effort, we're certainly proud, but it was just not quite to be.
"We'll regroup pretty quickly. Some guys have played here for the first time. It's intense and we'll have to be better next week."
South Africa host New Zealand again in Cape Town next week, while Australia go to Argentina for their round-three matchup.
Record-breaking Root edges England closer to Sri Lanka victory
Joe Root hit a record-breaking century as England edged closer to sealing their series victory over Sri Lanka at Lord's.
Root, who equalled Alastair Cook's record during the first innings of the second Test, made 103 from 111 balls for his 34th Test ton.
England resumed on 25-1 at the start of day three, with Root leading the way for the hosts and the crowd rose as one when a sweeping four completed his landmark century.
He helped his nation set their opponents a target of 483 after they were 251 all out.
As the light faded over Lord's, so too did Sri Lanka's momentum in their record-attempting chase, with Gus Atkinson and Olly Stone claiming Nishan Madushka and Pathum Nissanka respectively.
Play was eventually halted due to bad light, and called off to be resumed on Sunday with the tourists at 53-2 with Dimuth Karunaratne (23) and Prabath Jayasuriya (three) at the crease.
Data Debrief: Root revels on record-breaking day
Day three of the second Test belonged to Root, whose century was also his quickest in Test cricket.
Adding to his 143 in England's first innings, he registered two tons in a match for the first time, while becoming only the fourth player to achieve that feat in a Test at Lord's.
Root also joins Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar in scoring 5,000 Test runs in two different decades, while closing the gap on Cook's all-time England tally (12,472) to just 95.
If that was not enough for him, he also took the catches for both of Sri Lanka's wickets, making him the first England player to reach 200 in Test cricket.
BVI's Adaejah Hodge, Ja's Shanoya Douglas cop gold, bronze in women's 200m at World U-20 Champs
Adaejah Hodge of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) delivered a stunning performance to cop gold in the women’s 200m final at the World Under-20 Championships, while Jamaica’s Shanoya Douglas claimed bronze in Lima, Peru, on Friday.
Hodge, 18, who claimed silver in the same event at the 2022 Championships, upgraded her medal to gold as she topped the field in 22.74s, marking a significant milestone in her budding career.
The Olympian’s victory was the highlight of a successful night for the Caribbean, as 16-year-old Douglas also secured a spot on the podium, finishing third in 23.10s in a thrilling race that once again showcased the region's sprinting prowess. The Caribbean duo was separated by Australia’s Torrie Lewis, who clocked a personal best of 22.88s for second.
From the gun, Hodge, who was determined to improve on her previous silver medal finish, established herself as a solid contender for the top spot. With powerful strides and impeccable form, she maintained her composure around the curve and later exploded in the straight to leave rivals in her wake.
Hodge’s win and Douglas’ bronze brought the curtains down on what was the most successful for the Caribbean since the start of the five-day Championships, as Kerrica Hill earlier copped Jamaica’s second gold medal when she clocked 12.99s to top the women’s 100m hurdles. She won ahead of Croatia’s Mia Wild (13.15s) and Delta Amidzovski (13.24s) of Australia.
Jamaica now has two gold medals and one bronze, while Hodge claimed her country's first medal.
Carlos Brown Jr (21.51s) of the Bahamas finished eighth in the men's 200m final.
Prior to that, Jamaica’s Richard Hall and Cuba’s Yander Herrera missed out on the podium in the men’s final, as both clocked in at 13.46s for fifth and sixth. The event was won by American Ja’Kobe Tharp in a new World Under-20 leading time of 13.05s.
His compatriot Andre Korbmacher (13.14s) was second, with China’s Yuanjiang Chen third in 13.21s, a national Under-20 record.
Meanwhile, Michelle Smith of US Virgin Islands once again established herself as the gold medal favourite, as she was the fastest through to Saturday’s final. Smith clocked a brisk 56.39s to win semi-final two, while Haiti’s Gloria Guerrier (1:00.20) finished eighth and failed to progress.
Jamaica’s Kelly Ann Carr suffered a similar fate in semi-final three as she placed eighth in 1:00.33.
Only one Caribbean athlete will be present in the men’s final and that is Jamaica’s Daniel Wright, who topped semi-final three in 51.11s, while Trinidad and Tobago’s Cheyne West (53.09s) placed seventh in the same race and missed out.
Another Jamaican Trevoy Smith (54.24s), also finished down the track in a brisk semi-final one, which saw the top two qualifiers crossing the line together in a World Under-20 leading time of 49.36s.
The 400m hurdles finals are scheduled for 4:35pm Jamaica time on Saturday.
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