Historic Silver for Sunshine Girls as Jamaica Got More Medals on Commonwealth's Last Day
It was a mountain just too high to scale as Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls had to settle for a first-ever silver medal in the Commonwealth Games netball final against Australia inside the NEC Arena on Sunday night.
In their maiden gold medal match at this competition, against the world’s best team making its seventh-straight final appearance, the Sunshine Girls represented themselves admirably before losing 51-55.
It was another day for Jamaica to reap medals, and the netball silver added to a silver in the women’s 4x400m relay and a bronze in the women’s 4x100m relay.
Jamaica ended up in 12th place with 15 medals (six gold, six silver, and three bronze), way off the 27 earned at the last edition in Australia.
The Australians won 178 medals (67 gold, 57 silver, and 54 bronze), with England second best with 173 medals (56 gold, 64 silver, and 53 bronze).
So good were the Jamaicans on the netball court that they held the world number one - whom they had beaten in Pool A group play at the Games for the first time – at even keel at 29 at the halfway stage. However, the victors blew the contest open in the third quarter, thanks to several unforced errors by the Jamaicans, which left them with a six-goal deficit entering the last quarter, an identical scenario to their earlier group stage game.
But this time around, the Aussies weren’t about to let that huge margin slip, though Jamaica attempted a comeback which petered out.
“I thought we had our opportunity to come back, and we did come back, but one and two uncharacteristic errors that we weren’t making earlier against other teams crept in,” noted head coach Connie Francis at the game’s end.
She continued: “I thought the Diamonds really came hard at us, very physical, they came out with a purpose. We tried to match it and protect the ball, but we had some players on the court who were actually nursing injuries and shouldn’t be out there, but the total commitment to our country, our program, and to themselves, they willed themselves to be there.”
As usual, captain Jhaniele Fowler presented the main threat to the Aussies, and it was no surprise when their coaching staff made early adjustments in defense to try to stymie the big Jamaican, who scored 46 of 47 attempts.
Sarah Klau was introduced in the second quarter to play goal keep, while the starting goal keeps, Courtney Bruce, was moved to goal defense.
Fowler thought the team got tight in the third quarter and let the game slip away, though it did the best it had ever done at the Games.
“We’ve done the best that we’ve ever done, but we are still hungry for more, and we are happy that we came out in second place,” she said.
“I reckon we let ourselves down a little bit, and we were much tighter, especially in the third quarter, because we let them in and gave them a run… we reined them in when they did have a few runs on us, but unfortunately tonight we weren’t able to do that.”
A very close encounter in the first quarter ended with Australia having a two-goal cushion at 14-12, but the Sunshine Girls proved equal to the task to pull level at the break.
Then it all went downhill in the third quarter as the victors made seven unanswered goals, thanks to a series of turnovers by the Jamaicans and some controversial umpiring decisions that triggered boos and huge uproars from a raucous crowd inside the Arena.
Fowler understands the problematic nature of the umpires' job, though she disagreed with some of the calls, she believes such is the nature of the sport.
“To be honest, I thought the umpires did the best they could, but there were some decisions that I would argue with, and they did help to turn the momentum of the game at some points, but it is what it is. We have to learn to live with it at the end of the day,” she said.
Jamaica turned up the tempo in the final quarter after trailing 39-45, entering the last 15 minutes, and though they trimmed the deficit, it was not enough to overturn such a huge margin at the end.
Goal attack Shanice Beckford had a perfect five goals, while the Australians were led by perfect shooting from Gretel Bueta, who started at goal shoot but went to goal attack in the second quarter. She had 37 goals.
Cara Koenen, who went to goal shoot when she replaced starting goal attack Step Wood (three from five goal attempts), netted 15 goals.
“The Diamonds came out, especially in the second quarter, and their combination in the shooting circle unsettled our defending team, but nevertheless, we won a few balls but still made a few errors to return those advantages,” explained Francis.
The Girls ended with 14 turnovers to the Australians’ 11.
“I’m proud because from the very first day they played, they’ve shown our team's growth, depth, and strength, which is really good. We set targets and aim to improve on those,” ended Francis, a former national player.
For Fowler, it was simply a case where “we just didn’t make over the line the way we wanted to.”
On the final day of action on the track on Sunday, the women’s 4x400m relay team of hurdler Shiann Salmon, Junelle Bromfield, Roneisha McGregor, and Natoya Goule, took silver in 3:26.93 minutes behind Canada.
England had finished first but was disqualified.
The Jamaican men had finished with a bronze medal in the 4x400m relay final but were later disqualified, as Trinidad and Tobago won in 3:01.29 minutes.
In the morning session, Elaine Thompson-Herah made a bronze medal out of nothing with a superb anchor leg run in the 4x100m relay final.
The Jamaicans finished in 43.08 seconds behind Nigeria and England.
Megan Tapper went perilously close to the bronze medal in the women’s 100m hurdles final, finishing in fourth place in 12.67 seconds, while her compatriot Danielle Williams finished in sixth place in 112.69 seconds. The race was won in a Games Record 12.30 seconds by World Championships gold medalist and world record holder Nigeria’s Toby Amusan. Bahamian Devynne Charlton was second in 12.58, with England’s Cindy Sember snatching third in 12.59 seconds.
Jordan Scott was fifth in the men’s triple jump with a best of 16.11m on a day when he had foul problems with half of his efforts. Bermuda’s Jah-Nhai Perinchief was third with 16.92m.
In the men’s 400m final, Jamaica’s Anthony Cox finished sixth in 46.17 seconds, and Nathon Allen, who was never out of a stroll, finished eighth in 48 seconds after impressing with his opening round, season-best 45.18-second cruise.
Navasky Anderson was fifth in the men’s 800m final in 1:48.75 minutes, and Ackelia Smith was seventh in the women’s long jump final with 6.55m.
