Sunshine Girls opt out of Caribbean showpiece over ranking concerns
KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Jamaica have withdrawn from the Senior Caribbean Netball Championships scheduled for St Lucia later this month, amidst concerns their participation will hurt their international ranking.
The August 19-26 showpiece has been classified as a ranking tournament for the first time and Netball Jamaica said based on an analysis carried out, even if the Sunshine Girls played unbeaten, they stood to lose up to five ratings points.
Currently, Jamaica are ranked fourth in the world with 149 ratings points and would have been the highest-ranked side in the tournament.
“The review presented revealed that participation would result in a loss of five rating points,” Netball Jamaica said in a release.
“Jamaica currently has a world ranking of fourth which is based on a rating of 149. The country that is ranked third has a rating of 159, whilst the fifth ranked has attained a rating of 137.
“The report revealed that, assuming that Jamaica wins every match played during this tournament, on its conclusion we stand to lose five rating points, which mathematically results in a rating of 144.
“This would effectively widen the gap between Jamaica and England currently holding third place in the world ranking to 15 points, while at the same time, narrow the difference in rating points between us and South Africa currently ranked at fifth from 13 to eight.”
Jamaica have long been the powerhouses of Caribbean netball, reaching the semi-finals of the last World Cup in Sydney before losing to eventual champions Australia. They came away from that outing fourth in the international rankings. Despite the presence of Caribbean heavyweights Cuba in group-D of the CONCACAF U17 Girls Championships, Thomas Jordan, head coach of the Barbados U17 Girls Team, said his charges are equipped to compete.
The Barbadians will commence their continental competition today against hosts Guyana at the National Track and Field Centre, Leonora from 17:00hrs
Speaking at the Princess Ramada Hotel, Providence, Jordan declared, “The expectation is that we will compete, we are playing here to win and we are not intimidated by Cuba.
He noted, “Yes they [Cuba] are a powerhouse, they are a good team and we have seen them play before, but we have prepared ourselves to compete against them.”
Jordan further said, “It is pleasure to be here in Guyana for this tournament. We are preparing for the U17 and very much careful with the young ladies because we are developing them to mature and Junior table tennis sensation Kaysan Ninvalle who captured the 2016 Caribbean boys under-11 singles title at is confident of winning another title at this year’s pre and mini-cadet tournament in Jamaica.
“I feel great. I feel confident and I think that I can win this year again,” Ninvalle told Stabroek Sports after one of his training sessions at the National Gymnasium.
“All I have to do is keep on training and working hard because we [Guyana team] will have some tough competition this time around from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico but once we play our game, play well and back up each other, then we can win it,” the youngster added.
When asked what makes him so confident of winning, the 12-yearold Chase Academy student revealed that his coach Linden Johnson is a major factor in that regard.
“Well for me, because I’m coached by Linden Johnson, that pushes me more. When he coaches me I don’t fear anyone and most likely I’ll get home,” Ninvalle revealed.
Ninvalle, who will be competing in the under-13 category in this year’s tournament, has been training every day except Sundays in an effort to fine-tune his preparation for the August 21-27 challenge in Jamaica.
His main focus he openly highlighted, is sharpening his footwork ahead of his opening game while also utilizing Youtube to add a few tricks under his belt.
Meanwhile, coach Johnson, commenting on his Ninvalle’s chances, said that he too feels that the player who possesses the necessary