Debmarine Desert Jewels’ head coach Mary Waya has expressed great satisfaction with the overall readiness of her charges for the upcoming 2023 Netball World
Cup qualifiers slated for Pretoria, South Africa from 21 to 27 August.
Namibia is drawn in Pool A alongside South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Botswana.
The qualifiers will see Namibia’s senior national netball team opening their campaign with a clash against Botswana on 21 August, followed by what is expected to be a thrilling encounter against Zimbabwe on 23 August.
Their third match will be
against Tanzania the following day, before facing South Africa on 25 August in their last group match.
The team leaves for South Africa on 19 August, and veteran coach Waya is adamant that they are
well- prepared to put up a great show in Pretoria, and that they have what it takes to advance to the next phase of the competition.
“We are ready, and have been preparing well for the upcoming qualifiers. I think we have a good chance, and the group we are in does not look like much of a threat. We will plan for every team in our group, and we hope to come out tops,” said the highly-experienced Malawian native, who amassed over 200 caps for The Queens of Malawi during her heyday.
During her playing days, the 54-year-old gaffer also represented Malawi at two World Netball Championships (1995 and 2007), three Commonwealth Games (1998, 2006 and 2010), and two World Netball Series (2009 and 2010). She said the Proteas of South Africa will be one of their biggest threats at the upcoming
qualifiers.
“South Africa will be a great competition for us, and playing against them will be really great for the girls. Not just them, but we will have to be ready for all teams. We started with training by working on our speed, and now we have been doing coordination. The team is in shape, and we have one or two things that we need to work on, then we will be at 90% of where we want our players to be,” she continued.
– mkambukwe@nepc.com.na