The team manager of the senior national netball team, the DebMarine Desert Jewels, has said the team is hard at work as they prepare for the upcoming Cosana Tri-Nations Cup.
The DebMarine Desert Jewels will return to competitive action next week when they take part in the Confederation of Southern African Netball Associations (Cosana) Tri-nations Cup that will be held in Malawi from 12 to 16 June 2022.
In an interview with Nampa on Sunday, team manager Malan Elago said they are looking forward to the championships which will see them back in action for the first time since they competed in the African Nations Cup which was held in Windhoek in November 2021.
“We are still pushing to be ready for the tri-nations in Malawi, we started training last week with the Windhoek-based players, but we expect all players to be in camp Sunday and the coach will then start implementing her training schedule on Monday,” she said.
The team manager added that their goal is to see Namibia qualify for the 2023 World Cup that will be held in Cape Town and the upcoming games will be crucial to assess the team.
“Most of our players competed in the MTC Netball Premier League which finished with its first leg two weeks ago and fitness-wise they are 100 per cent fit,” Elago said.
She further added that they want to participate in the World Cup and the preparation should be enough to help them win games when they compete in the qualifiers in Cape Town in August.
Elago also stated that while in Malawi by the end of this week they will give their best to improve on their ranking.
Namibia will be the lowest-ranked team at the Cosana Tri-Nations as they are currently ranked 22nd in the global rankings, while hosts Malawi will enter the tournament as the highest-ranked nation at number seven and Zimbabwe ranks 13th.
The Cosana Tri-nations Cup will provide an opportunity for the Namibian side to improve on their ranking as well as prepare the senior team for the Africa World Cup qualifiers set for 20 to 25 August 2022 in Cape Town.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
