Jewels in cruise control at World Cup qualifiers
Namibia’s senior women’s netball team, the Debmarine Desert Jewels, are enjoying a dominant start to the Africa Netball Cup in Kenya, having won all their group-stage matches after storming to a 16-goal victory (47-31) over Zimbabwe’s Gems yesterday.
The event, which doubles as the African qualifiers for the 2027 Netball World Cup in Sydney, will see only four of the ten competing nations advance.
The Debmarine Desert Jewels opened their qualification bid on a high by beating Botswana’s Dinaledi 54-32 on Sunday in Nairobi.
As it stands, only two qualifying spots remain available, as South Africa’s Spar Proteas (ranked fifth) and Uganda’s She Cranes (ranked sixth) have already qualified by virtue of their world rankings.
Julene Meyer’s women will thus aim to grab one of those spots as they head into their penultimate Pool One encounter against Tanzania’s Taifa Queens today at 12:00 (11:00 Namibian time), although the head coach prefers to focus only on the task at hand.
A potent side awaits
Their final group-stage encounter will see them take on a potent South African Spar Proteas side tomorrow at 17:00 (16:00 Namibian time), which has also won both its matches against Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
Despite the Jewels and Spar Proteas being level on four points, South Africa lead Pool One with a superior goal average of 2.33 to Namibia’s 1.60, having scored 147 goals and conceded 63, compared with the Jewels’ 101 scored and 63 conceded.
In an interview on Netball Namibia’s Facebook page, Meyer revealed that the team is well aware of the pressure on them to perform and grab one of the two remaining spots at the World Cup.
“[However], we’re focusing on the [nations] which we’ll be going up against [at this event and] keeping the ball in hand, executing our possession, and not getting carried away by focusing on Sydney,” she said.
