Netball Jamaica launched the Netball World Cup Qualifier for the Americas Region on Thursday at the NCB Wellness and Recreation Centre in Kingston. The qualifier will take place between October 15-22 at the National Indoor Sports Centre also in Kingston.
Eight countries from the eighteen-member region will join Jamaica for potentially six days of competition to qualify two countries other than Jamaica who has already qualified for the Netball World Cup, which will be held in Cape Town, South Africa next year July 28 to August 6.
The eight countries are the will join Jamaica are Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago and the USA.
The Honourable Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange, Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sports is the patron for the qualifier. She was in attendance at the launch. She congratulated Netball Jamaica for taking the bold step to host the qualifier and promised to help in every way possible to make the event a success. She committed twelve million dollars ($12,000,000) from the government to Netball Jamaica to help cover the cost of staging the qualifier.
Netball Jamaica president Tricia Robinson, welcome the opportunity to host the event which has never been held in Jamaica prior to this up-coming qualifier. She promised that the series will be a very exciting one and that there will be high level competition among the region’s teams. She encouraged everyone to come to the matches and show their support for all the teams while they ‘mek noise’ for the Sunshine Girls who have been preparing for competition. Additionally, she thanked all the sponsors who have come on-board so far to ensure that the qualifier is a financial success.
Marva Bernard, president of the Americas Region promised that the regional governing body stands ready to support Netball Jamaica who was awarded the qualifier about two year ago. She said that she expects some very competitive match-ups among the countries in her region and that the qualifier can only help to improve netball in the region.
The immediate past president of world governing body for netball, it was then the International Netball Federation – The Honourable Molly Rhone endorsed the staging of the qualifier in Jamaica and promised her support for the local organizing committee (LOC) that has been planning the qualifier.
The LOC has already signed a number of sponsors including Budget Car Rental, General Accident, Gilbert, JPS, Main Event, NCB, Proven, SDF, Sportsmax, Stewarts Automotive Group, Tru Shake and Wata.
Concrete Stain – Affi Mek It Out (Audio Visual)