Barbados and host Canada improved to 2-0 winning records when the seven-team 14th edition of the International Netball Federation (INF) World Cup of the Americas Federation of Netball Associations (AFNA) Championship Tournament continued at SAIT Polytechnic, Alberta, Canada on Wednesday night.
Following its 89-8 demolition of Argentina on Tuesday's opening night of competition, the Barbadians, ranked ninth in the world outclassed USA 57-26 and Canada, ranked 20th in the world punished the Argentines, 73-13 while Grenada made a winning start as well, 48-35 over winless Cayman Island.
Last night, the Wesley "Pepe" Gomes coached T&T "Calypso Netballers" went after their second win as well when they faced Cayman Islands while USA battled Argentina and Canada came up against Grenada.
Today, the T&T women who crushed USA 68-28 in their opener on Tuesday will come up against the Canadians from 8.30pm in what is expected to be their toughest match to date ahead of matches against Argentina tomorrow (Saturday) from 6.30pm, Sunday versus Grenada at 7 pm before closing out round-robin play against Barbados on Monday from 8.30pm in what is expected to be the tournament decider.
The AFNA Championship serves as the INF Americas regional qualifying event for the Netball World Cup and at the end of the round-robin format on Monday, the top two countries will qualify to the Netball World Cup in Sydney, 2015.
And the T&T women are hoping to secure one of the top two spots as they seek redemption from a dismal campaign at the recently concluded Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, where the former world champions ended tenth.
The teams already qualified for the World Cup to date are ten-time champions and reigning holders Australia, New Zealand, England, the top three teams in the world along with Jamaica, South Africa, Wales, Scotland, Fiji and Samoa