Barbados Secures Spot in Netball World Youth Cup 2025 After Qualifiers Victory

Barbados have qualified for the Netball World Youth Cup 2025, after defeating Grenada in the qualifiers at the weekend.

The Young Gems would go on to lose their first game of the competition, 54-29 to Jamaica. Trinidad & Tobago took the third qualifying spot, beating Grenada in the third-place playoff.

Having beaten arch-nemeses Trinidad & Tobago to top their preliminary pool, Barbados avoided meeting Jamaica in the semifinals. They then defeated the young ladies from the Spice Isle 63-45 to book their spot in next year’s world championships in Gibraltar. The loss in the final was the only blemish for the Young Gems.

Speaking to Barbados TODAY on Sunday evening from the Paul Chonchon Hall in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, president of the Barbados Netball Association, Dr. Carmeta Douglin struck a positive tone. She admits that closing the gap with worldclass teams like Jamaica is no easy task. But she insists that improvement is possible with the right structures.

“What we’re planning is a development programme, where we’re working on our Under-14’s,” Douglin said. “We actually invited Under-14’s to take part in our league this year for the very first time. In netball, normally you have the primary school, you have the secondary school, but in our open league, we actually had 10 Under-14 teams competing.

“So what we’ve done is we got a grant from the Ministry of Sports and Youth, and we’re going to be going into five different parishes with our Under-14 programme. And we’re going to be having a pathway, where we select the best Under-14 players to come together and to receive training. Then we have a very good Under-16 team. We’ve won the [Jean Pierre Caribbean] Under- 16 competition three years straight. And we’re looking to build.

“So our Under-21 is not a bad team, but they still need a lot of work to get to the world-class level, as you can see. So we are looking to build on Under-14’s, to move to Under-16’s, to move to Under-21’s, to move to seniors. So we are looking at anAcademy, where we have players in training all year round, and moving up through the age groups. So this is something we are planning.

“Jamaica has been there, they have done that, and they are getting a lot more practice, a lot more exposure, because this Jamaica Under-21 team would obviously be playing in their Super League and playing with their seniors, who already have a really good start. So we need to get there, and it’s a building process, and we are working towards it.”

In the final, the Jamaicans outshot Barbados, but also controlled the midcourt. Their 54 goals came on 77 attempts, whereas Barbados were only able to put up 43 shots in total.

Damia Walrond was adjudged the tournament’s best shooter, despite having an off night against Jamaica, shooting 25 of 35.

Barbados were within touching distance until halftime, their defensive schemes keeping the Sunshine Girls at bay to the tune of a seven-goal deficit, 21-14. After the first quarter, the score was 11-7. Barbados head coach Pamela Hesson was pleased with the way her charges came out of the gate.

“I didn’t think we started too badly at all,” she said. “I thought we did pretty well. We kept up with them in the first couple of minutes so it wasn’t too bad. But what you’ve got to remember is this team here have been together probably about five, six weeks, so they haven’t been together very long and I’m so proud of this team because they put every single effort into it””

Hesson took the opportunity to blood a number of young players against less experienced opposition. She feels that going forward that exposure will play dividends. And with a much longer preparation period ahead for the trip to Gibraltar, she is upbeat about the journey ahead. For her, it’s mission accomplished.

“It was a good feeling to be the first team confirmed for the World Youth Netball Championships,” she told Barbados TODAY. “The hard work paid off… Now that we are qualified for Gibraltar, we have longer to prepare, 11-12 months.

“We will lose some older players due to their ages next birthday, as they will be too old, but we have others that didn’t make it this time but will make it for next year. We will continue with our training programme and look at new players coming through our netball pathway.” (TF)