Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
The Sunshine Girls were all smiles yesterday before their departure for the World Netball Championships (WNC) in Auckland, New Zealand.
Robert Bailey, Freelance Writer
A CONFIDENT 12-member Jamaica Sunshine Girls netball squad departed the island yesterday for the World Netball Championships (WNC) which begin in Auckland, New Zealand on November 10.
Hyacinth Smith, manager of the team, said she was certain the team would do well at the championships.
"We like to think that we are very confident going into this championship," said Smith. "That's based on our preparations and based on where we see ourselves and what has been happening over the past couple months; especially when we had our final round of training sessions when we had our full squad together," she said.
"Our main dangers are New Zealand and Australia and if we want to be playing on the final night we need to beat New Zealand to get to the final."
The Jamaicans are drawn in Group C and will play alongside Fiji, Singapore and the Cook Islands. They will arrive New Zealand on Tuesday and are scheduled to play a warn-up match against the New Zealand Under-21 team two days later.
Confident
Simone Forbes, vice-captain of the side, said the girls were confident and raring to go.
"We are just bubbling at this time and we can't wait to get out there because we know that we are going out there to do our best," said Forbes who plays goal attack for the team.
"We all believe that we can win the goal medal and that drives out motivation and I think we are at our peak now," she said. "I think all the teams are a danger to us because all of the teams have been improving their games, but I believe England, Australia and New Zealand will be definitely be hard to beat."
The Sunshine Girls have retained seven players from the 2003 team. They are Nadine Bryan, Sharon Wiles, captain Elaine Davis, Simone Forbes Byfield, Nichala Gibson and Kasey Evering.
The new members of the team are Christina Solmon, Nicole Aiken, Romelda Aiken, Paula Thompson and Sasha-Gaye Henry.