ACCURATE shooting by lanky Jhaneile Fowler (40 from 44 attempts) and Anakay Griffiths (20 from 25 shots) coupled with great centre court mastery and tight defensive combination by their defenders enabled Jamaica, better known as the ‘Sunshine Girls’ in the netball world, to dethrone Trinidad and Tobago as the Americas Federation of Netball Association (AFNA) queens. Playing before the largest crowd of the tournament at the Jean Pierre Complex, Port of Spain on Saturday night, the youthful Jamaicans stalled the “Calypso Girls” threatening surge in the second quarter when the scores were 20-18 and eventually took full control to dominate the rest of the gripping encounter to maintain their unbeaten record and secure victory by 60-40 margin.
Jamaica’s national coach Oberon Pitterson called a strategic time out to quell the heightened enthusiasm and vociferous crowd support for the homesters during a six-point blitz that almost levelled the scores.
But Pitterson’s timely intervention denied T&T from wresting the initiative in the crucial title decider. It appeared as if the coach designated the small-statured Goal Attack Griffiths to be responsible for regaining the momentum from the Trinidadians who had reduced the scoreline dramatically with six unanswered points of their own.
On resumption and with Fowler tightly marked by Goal Keeper Alicia Liverpool and double-teamed by Goal Defence Crystal Ann George, Griffiths stole the spotlight and the Jamaicans responded in swift fashion and registered six unanswered accurate shots and swung the pendulum in favour of the “Sunshine Girls” who are ranked number four in the world and number one in AFNA region.
Fowler, the 6’5”-tall shooter, regained her rhythm and unerring precision as she converted four points from four attempts before T&T got two of their own. There was no looking back for the Jamaicans who closed the third quarter with a 12-point advantage at 41-29.
Both Fowler and Griffiths continue the wonderful chemistry inside the shooting circle and converted every opportunity as they increased the lead to an 18-point advantage before T&T’s coach Jennifer Frank called time out at 50-32.
T&T’s goal shooter Janelle Barker-Davis and goal attack Joelisa Cooper were not effective and Frank re-introduced ace shooter Anastascia Wilson who played in the first quarter. The last five minutes was evenly contested as Wilson found her form and reduced the deficit but it was too late as the Jamaicans celebrated sweet victory.
T&T finished third overall and collected the bronze medals. Wilson scored 11 from 15 attempts while Janelle Barker-Davis had 14 from 20 and Cooper 15 from 22.

Barbados collected the silver medals and relegated St Lucia to fourth spot with a comfortable 54-28 victory. It was Barbados’ seven victories. Their only loss was to eventual champion Jamaica. Nikita Piggott netted 31 from 35 attempts while Laurel Brown scored 20 from 27. Shem Maxwell was topscorer for St Lucia and converted 19 points from 27 shots.
Canada was definitely the most improved team and they clinched fifth position with a hard fought 59-41 victory over the United States of America (USA) which was third at the 2010 Championships that were held in St Lucia.
The Americans found themselves in sixth spot while Grenada finished seventh when they whipped Guyana 63-24. Christa Stephen led the way with 46 points from 51 attempts while Angeline McCarthy was Guyana’s best shooter and finished with 18 from 25 shots. Simonica Fanfair converted six of 11 attempts. Shonette Estwick missed all three attempts.
In the battle for the wooden spoon, Bermuda upstaged Guyana and finished in eighth position with a commanding 68-34 victory. Daniele Raynar was magnificent and she scored a game high 57 out of 63 attempts while Melissa Wainwright netted nine out of 12.
Goal shooter McCarthy has been Guyana’s top shooter throughout the competition and maintained her high standard. She had quarter scores of 9 from 11 attempts, 9 from 10; 6 from 10 and 7 from 10 for an overall aggregate of 31 points from 41 attempts.
The only disturbing feature of the final night was the distasteful reception T&T’s Minister of Sports Anil Roberts received on introduction during the last quarter of the final match. He  was roundly and loudly booed and with such a hostile reception, he soon departed and missed the AFNA presentation function.
It should be noted that the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and SPORTT had invested heavily in hosting the bi-annual tournament that attracted nine teams. Bermuda and Guyana made their debut outing and finished at the bottom of the points table in eighth and ninth positions respectively.
The Guyanese were advantaged by the other seasoned teams but they should have given a better account against the Bermudians. If the other results were extremely disappointing, the one against Bermuda revealed that the Bermudians had learnt faster after both teams were severely trounced in the opening encounters.
Despite their humiliating experiences, the future should be bright for both teams but a lot depends on what happens when they return home and when they embark on their trips to the 2014 edition, which will be staged in Canada.
Thorough preparation and exposure to high level competitions will help to lift their standards.