Seychelles netball to set up national team |18 September 2010
“We have been advised to get our national team up and start training hard for the next African qualifiers. It won’t be easy, but we are determined to make it succeed,” said Ms Isidore.
She added that the SNA will get help from regional director Jones Smith, who is based in Namibia.
“She has agreed to help us train our national team. She’s done a great job preparing the Namibian and Tanzanian national teams who took part in the qualifiers in Pretoria,” added Ms Isidore.
Invited to attend the executive meeting organised jointly by the Confederation of African Netball Associations (Cana) and the International Netball Federation of England (Ifna) and watch some qualifying matches, along with SNA secretary Marie-Claire Chetty, Ms Isidore said the local netball body will pay its affiliation fee to Cana to be able to compete in international matches.
She added that Ifna, of which the SNA is already a paid-up member, has agreed to run a netball safari here in April 2011 where as many schoolchildren as possible can take part.
“They will bring along bibs, balls, cones and whistles which they will leave behind for the SNA to use in matches and training sessions,” she said.
“Also included on their programme are national team training and sessions for referees. After that, we expect to play friendly matches against Cameroon.”
Ms Isidore’s and Ms Chetty’s trips were sponsored by the National Sports Council.
Africa will send three countries – Botswana, Malawi and South Africa – to the World Netball Championship in Singapore next year.
Malawi qualified automatically after finishing fifth at the 2007 World Netball Championship held in New Zealand, while Botswana and South Africa earned their tickets after the recent qualifiers in Pretoria.
The qualifying tournament in Pretoria ran from September 5-11 and 11 countries – Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe – contested the two World Cup slots.
Reza