This country's Calypso Girls will be going all out to end a three-match losing streak and finish on a high when they tackle regional neighbours Barbados in their seventh spot playoff position at the Seventh International Netball Federation (INF) World Youth (Under-21) Championship in Glasgow, Scotland, from 5.30 am today at the Emirates Arena.This after both teams were beaten in their fifth to eighth place semifinals at the same venue on Thursday.The "Calypso Girls," led by Amanda Cameron, went under to Wales 54-61 in a close contest which was locked at 52-all with four minutes left while the Barbadians were thrashed 20-59 by South Africa in the other fifth to eighth semis.
Prior to their defeats on Thursday, both T&T coached by Grace Parkinson-Griffith and Barbados started off the tournament with three-match winning streaks in their respective pool before losing their group deciders and main draw quarterfinal encounters.T&T, which was 12th in 2009 in Cook Islands registered victories over Bermuda (47-31), Malta (69-32) and Northern Ireland (56-36) before bowing to 2009 semifinalist New Zealand in their group decider, 16-77 followed by a 32-64 humbling by 2009 bronze medallist Jamaica in the quarterfinals, and then the loss to Wales.
Despite the run of defeats, Cameron speaking after the Wales contest said her team is still confident going into the game against Barbados and boasted, "We'll come out seventh, I'm sure about that."
The Barbadians had wins over Republic of Ireland (84-5), Singapore (67-38) and Papua New Guinea (45-35) in pool play, but like T&T was then stopped in its pool decider, by England, 22-71 followed by a quarterfinal loss to Australia, 14-79 and then to South Africa.Also on today in the fifth place match between Wales and South Africa to be followed by the bronze encounter featuring defending champions Australia and its better rival, New Zealand.This after the Aussies blew away England 67-33 and New Zealand held of Jamaica 53-44 in the two main draw semifinals.
Today's Matches
Seventh: Barbados vs T&T
Fifth: South Africa vs Wales
Third: England vs Jamaica
First: Australia vs New Zealand