Kate Palmer, Netball Australia CEO, Molly Rhone, IFNA President and Urvasi Naidoo, IFNA CEO took time out of their busy schedules during the Commonwealth Games to visit the GOAL programme this week. GOAL, IFNA's award winning programme, runs in partnership with Standard Chartered and the NAZ Trust. It offers girls from underprivileged backgrounds the opportunity to play netball and gain valuable life skills. It runs in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. The picture was taken at the Deepalya site in Delhi.
On the court, the Commonwealth Games competition reached a thrilling conclusion, with New Zealand's Silver Ferns retaining their Commonwealth title after a pulsating double extra-time victory over World Champions Australia, 66-64. New Zealand defender Anna Scarlett played a key role in helping the Ferns to turn around the Diamonds's early six goal advantage, before leaving the court with a finger injury. Without her height on court, Australia found it easier to feed their shooters, and levelled the scores at the end of the 60 minute period. Scarlett returned to the court for the extra time period, and Australia once again struggled in attack. However, the scores were still level at the end of the second period of extra time, and a further eight minutes were played before Maria Tutaia held her nerve to sink the long range goal that retained the title for New Zealand.
In the bronze medal match, England recovered from their close losses to Australia and New Zealand earlier in the tournament to register an impressive 71-47 win against Jamaica, to retain the bronze medal which they won in 2006. England's defensive combination of Sonia Mkoloma and Geva Mentor shut down possession to Jamaica's Romelda Aiken, and with shooters Louisa Brownfield and Pamela Cookey in commanding form, England eased to a simple win.
Finally this week, Vanuatu Netball has announced a three match test series for the island's national team against Australia's South East Demons club side, which will take place in Vanuatu from 30 October - 3 November.
No comments:
Post a Comment