Sunshine Girls upbeat in training
Published:Tuesday | October 13, 2020 | 12:11 AMRobert Bailey/Gleaner Writer
Jamaica’s senior women’s netball team will return to training at the Leila Robinson Courts today as they continue their preparations for their Three-Test series against England in December.
Head coach Connie Francis told The Gleaner that the players and technical staff all received negative results for their COVID-19 tests done last week.
“We did our test and we got back our results on Friday, so it is positive to start,” Francis said.
“We are in a happy and jovial mood knowing that we are ‘COVID-free,’ so we are just anxious and want to feed off each other’s energy and just put our strategy and our fitness together right now.
“We are going to try and be at social distance because for at least the next two and half weeks, we can say ‘Yes, we can adhere to that rule,’ because it is about fitness and the skills that we are going to be working on.”
Francis said that the Sunshine Girls have been doing individual training at home and are anxious to return to the courts.
“We have passed the due date to have the girls on court and they are looking forward to being out there with their teammates and working on plans for this series against England,” she said.
“Everybody is also excited because we need to get back on familiar ground in order to prepare ourselves the right way for the next phase for our tour.”
LOOKING forward to training
Khadijah Williams, a senior member of the Sunshine Girls squad, said they are looking forward to working together in training together despite the daily increase of COVID-19 cases locally.
“Going back to training with COVID means that us training together is not going to be possible, so that is another challenge, but at least we are back on court and we can get some form of court fitness,” Williams said. “It is going to be difficult for us, but bless the Lord, all of us are negative currently and we just have to keep it that way.”
The series, which will see the fourth-ranked Sunshine Girls going up against England, who are rated one place above them in the world rankings, will be played at the Copper Box Arena in London, England, from December 1-6.
“It is a very important series for us because it is a ranking series and it is also building for the next four years.
“[When] we get an opportunity like this, we just want to ensure that we are not stepping back and that we are going forward,” Francis said. “These players have been working out very hard at home and putting in the commitment to the country.”