Their hopes of capturing the coveted gold medal Down Under has been dashed, but Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls remain in high spirits ahead of their bronze medal encounter against rivals England at the Netball World Cup in Sydney, Australia.

This according to head coach Minneth Reynolds, who believes the girls fought gallantly against a tough Australian outfit before what was deemed a world record 16,244 fans at the Allphones Arena.

The Sunshine Girls stuck with the hosts right through their semi-final encounter, but were unable to capitalise on the turnovers and ultimately lost the contest 56-67.

The Jamaican camp is optimistic that if the same level of intensity is maintained for the bronze medal clash against England today, the Girls will be adding to their medal tally in major championships.

“I think we had too many turnovers in this (semi-final) game so that cost us, nonetheless there is still a chance at another medal so we are not hanging our heads. We are definitely not going home empty handed — it is all or nothing, so we are going to recover and come back stronger and fight all way for that bronze medal,” Reynolds assured.

“We have to remain confident; we have learned some lessons from previous games that we were in those winning positions and then lost it. But we still have that hunger and we have to ensure that we go out and we have a good start and fight for it,” she added.

The Sunshine Girls started their campaign with a comprehensive 90-44 win over 13th-ranked Samoa, but went down 50-54 to England in their subsequent game.

They returned a day later and asserted their dominance over 11th ranked Scotland with a 71-24 win, but again failed to maintain a consistent run as they suffered a 48-55 loss to New Zealand in the second round.

However, the Girls made all in a 59-47 win over Uganda, before clinching a gutsy 63-62 win over number five ranked Malawi to advance to the semi-final.

Having contested seven games over nine days, the Jamaicans have displayed signs of fatigue and have been contending with a few injuries and sore muscles prior to their semi-final contest. Goal-Attack Shanice Beckford has a lingering ham string injury and Nicole Dixon who marshals centre court is carrying a calf injury, while Goal-defence Stacian Facey has injured her knee.

“They are in high spirits and are looking forward to the bronze medal game; this is what we have been training for and with the help of the physio the recovery has been going good. Being here is nothing new to us… we are mentally and physically tough, and in order to achieve a podium finish, we have to focus on what we have to do and not the sore muscles,” Reynolds told the Jamaica Observer.

Meanwhile, President of Netball Jamaica Marva Bernard is confident that her players will make the country proud.

“The ladies know what is at stake, so let us see how they go up against England and I expect they will fight to the end. They are confident that they can do well and I believe they will make us proud,” she noted.

England suffered a 39-50 loss to New Zealand in the other semi-final match. The ‘Roses’ having defeated Jamaica in the preliminary rounds and will be confident of repeating the feat, but will have their hands full in trying to combat the height and versatility of the Jamaican line-up.

This will be the 14th World Cup meetings between Jamaica and England, with England leading the head-to-head meetings with nine wins to Jamaica’s five.

Jamaica have claimed the World Cup bronze medal on three occasions in 1991, 2003 and 2007, while England will contest their sixth consecutive bronze-medal match. They have won the medal on two occasions — 1999 and 2011.

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