Buoyed by winning the silver medal at the inaugural Caribbean Games in Guadeloupe, Barbados’ Under-23 team netball coach Denise Alleyne is already planning to make the Bajan Gems a stronger and better unit for the future.
“We achieved our greatest objective of medalling, but there are a number of areas such as strength and conditioning and preparations to deal with unexpected injuries. We had no idea what the court conditions would have been and with netball on lockdown for the past three years, we were more or less restarting,” Alleyne told Midweek Sport in an interview after the team returned home on Monday evening.
“However, we recognise that having a training unit of 18 players will not cut it as some players will not make the grade and some could suffer various injuries or drop from the programme for various reasons,” Alleyne added.
The Gems were hit by injuries to mid-court players Vivica Addison, Stephian Shepherd and Kimani Archer during the tournament while another key player Chiara Chase had to be withdrawn from the squad after suffering a pre-Games injury. (KB)
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