Wales Netball
May 17, 2016
There are
celebrations at Welsh Netball this week, after a well-earned second place at
INF Netball Europe Open Championships 2016.
Wales gained victory over Scotland and Northern Ireland, but missed out
on gold to England on Sunday.
Wales Team Head
Coach, Trish Wilcox, said,
“We’re very
proud of our silver medal. Our aim was
gold but we are happy with our performance and with how we are getting closer
and closer to our higher ranked rivals.
“We aim to
increase our world ranking and build upon it.”
A 49 – 36 win
against the Scots put the Welsh in a confident position for the rest of the
event. The team felt competitive going
into their second match. Management soon
recognised progression in their second encounter against Northern Ireland,
which saw the athletes steal another impressive 54 – 38 win. Despite a promising start against England,
being only 3 goals apart at the end of the first quarter, the end result left
Wales with a disappointing 42 – 81 loss.
The NE Open
Championships is an important event in the Netball calendar, and an opportunity
for the home nations to play each other.
It was also a particularly important competition for the girls this year,
who will all be hoping for a ticket on the South Africa tour with Welsh Netball
in June 2016.
“The event has
set a good platform for South Africa,” says Trish Wilcox, “some of these
athletes will be playing in an international fixture and going to South Africa
for the very first time.
There are so
few opportunities like this; it will be brilliant for them to be part of this
experience.”
Captain Suzy
Drane also celebrated a personal victory this weekend, gaining her 75th
senior cap. Trish Wilcox describes her
as a “tremendous role model on and off the court,” and a “great inspiration.”
Another key
player during the event according to management was Georgia Rowe. The 20 year-old shot a high percentage of
goals and “matured into her game”. We
look forward to seeing more great things from Georgia.
