JAMAICA’S netballers returned home on Monday evening a little disappointed knowing that the FINA World Fastnet Netball title was in their grasp before it slipped away.

Sunshine Girls captain Simone Forbes, who copped the Player of the Series award, told the Observer they were so close to being crowned world champion for the first time.

Said Forbes: “We went there hoping that we would win and it was in the palm of our hands. I am a little disappointed we didn’t get the gold, but I am satisfied with the performance of the team and that’s what is important.

“It is Fastnet and that’s what I like about the game, it is unpredictable,” added Forbes.

Forbes led from the front getting two Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards, a feat also achieved by centre Nadine Bryan.

Forbes told the Observer that the entire team played well and it was unfortunate that one person had to be singled out.

“It is a team sport and I share it with them. I couldn’t do what I did if I didn’t have their support.”

She continued: “To me it was a successful tournament, we came third and lost just one game in the semi-final. The tour was a success because everybody did what they were supposed to do.”

Forbes, who made her debut in 1999 and recently received her master’s degree in marketing management, claimed Jamaica was the best team despite not winning.

“Certainly, the team that won, beat us by one point and on another day we could have won. We finished the tournament number one despite finishing third,” said Forbes proudly.

Meanwhile, coach Connie Francis said despite finishing third they were fairly a satisfied bunch, after stamping their authority all over the tournament in Liverpool, England.

The Sunshine Girls, who finished second last year at the inaugural tournament, defeated Australia 30-29 for bronze and coach Francis was pleased.

Said Francis: “I feel better because last year in the preliminary round, we only won two games and this year, we beat everybody except for New Zealand where we drew that game.”

The Jamaicans finished the preliminary competition with the best record of four wins and one drawn encounter (4-0-1) and topped the standings with nine points.

They toppled traditional world number one Australia 32-30, stopped hosts and third-ranked England 27-20, and tied 27-27 with second-ranked and defending champions New Zealand. They also beat Malawi 32-30 and dispatched South Africa 34-22.

The Sunshine Girls then lost their semi-final match 29-28 to New Zealand, who went on to defend their title beating England in the final.

“It was an excellent performance. I rate the effort of all the players,” said coach Francis.

“I thought that deep down, this was the year for us to really win that trophy, but it didn’t go our way. We did put everything into it. Just losing one game is a fantastic effort from all the players,” Francis pointed out.

However, Francis had a major concern as she wanted to see more players who have the skills to perform in the Fastnet version of the game being more exposed.

“We would want to see us coming out with a different Fastnet team. Other countries are doing it and we have the same players going and going. New Zealand and Australia made a lot of changes. We need to really buy into Fastnet because it is an opportunity to bring out different players who can do different things in short games,” said Francis.

The Fastnet version of netball is like 20/20 cricket, a shorter and more exciting game.

Under the Fastnet format, games are played in six-minute quarters with unlimited substitutions.

The rules allow each team to nominate a power play quarter in which every goal scores double points, while successful shots from outside the circle throughout the game are worth two points.