Teams rue netball qualifiers’ schedule

Teams in the Americas Netball World Cup Qualifiers at the National Indoor Sports Centre are complaining about the schedule, which they claim makes it difficult for recovery while the fierce competition continues.

The tournament started on Sunday with all the teams having one match each day and on some days, all play two matches.

Donna Joseph, assistant coach of St Lucia, argues that they have been faced with a dilemma since the first day of the competition, when they played the last game of the morning session against Grenada, and then back on court for the first game of the evening session against Trinidad and Tobago.

"From the start of the competition, the way the fixtures have been made, it would have been tough for us. All the teams we have played are ranked above us and we had two hard games on the first day. We had four hours in between the games, literally four hours. How can a team recover in four hours with that level of competition?" Joseph asked with frustration.

She said this is taking a toll on the players.

"The body is still tired, there's no recovery time and on the other hand, you have us playing tough games, whereas you have other teams playing one tough game and a little lighter (match)," Joseph said.

St Vincent and the Grenadines assistant coach Kalifa McCollin also thinks the schedule makes it hard for them to recover.

"I think in previous years, (in terms of) the standards of the competition, you would have found that some teams were playing at a high level and some were a bit below par, but this year you have all of the teams playing at a high level, all the games are quite intense, so I think it's a little bit difficult for people to recover within the time span that we have," McCollin said.

She, however, stated that St Vincent and the Grenadines tried to prepare for close intense matches as best as possible and they will need to use this preparation as they play the last match tonight and the first game tomorrow.

"In preparation for coming here, we did have a camp where our training sessions would have been back to back as best as we could have. Some of the girls do have work and some have school so it was a bit tedious getting everybody at a time," McCollin said.

The qualifiers end on Sunday as two teams will look to join Jamaica as the three teams heading to Cape Town for the World Cup next year.