The third Africa Netball Championships take place later this month and the Spar Proteas believe it is the ideal opportunity to entrench their position as the continent’s best team.
The Championships take place in Blantyre, Malawi from 24 June to 29 June and will feature the national teams from Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Spar Proteas’ coach Elize Kotze said their goal in the African Championships was to confirm their status as the best team in Africa despite being ranked one place lower than their counterparts on the International Netball Federation (INF) World Rankings.
“We have beaten Malawi in our last three games and we would like to do build on that for the World Rankings,” said Kotze. “We also want to go out, play great netball and make the country proud.”
Kotze admits that it will be a tough proposition as African teams are unpredictable and as a coach you never really know what to expect.
“We are confident about our chances but it would be naïve to think we are just going to just steam roll everyone. Zambia and Malawi in particular are going to be very tough.”
The Spar Proteas are on course to emulate the achievement of their Spar Baby Proteas counterparts who made light work of disposing of Botswana and Zimbabwe en route to clinching the U/21 Tri-Nations in May.
The Spar Proteas and Spar Baby Proteas squads attended a joint training camp in Potchefstroom this past weekend where the teams the Africa Championships and World Youth Championships in Glascow in August were due to be selected.
Kotze said her squad of 17 will be whittled down to a 12-player touring team for the Africa Championships.
Netball SA CEO Blanche de la Guerre said off the court in Malawi high-level discussions would take place to ensure the growth of the sport on the continent.
“The event aims to advance the game of Netball at all levels throughout Africa by coordinating and developing efficient standards of administration, playing, officiating and coaching.
“We want to unite all eligible national netball federations throughout Africa.”
Since the establishment of Africa Netball in 2009, the region realised the need to develop the athletes, officials and administrators under activities facilitated by Africa Netball and the INF.
The championships include governance and administration workshop; Africa Netball AGM; Africa Coaching and officiating framework steering group meeting; and a coaching and officiating framework.
(0 rating, 0 votes, rated)
Loading...
