Dr Bridget Adams of Trinidad and Tobago was elected unopposed as the new president of Americas netball at the annual general meeting at Liguanea Club in New Kingston on Saturday, one day ahead of the start of the World Cup qualifying tournament .

She succeeds Jamaican Marva Bernard, who did not seek re-election. Bernard will sit on the executive until the Netball World Cup in South Africa in 2023 as regional director.

But Jamaica will maintain a presence in the regional body as former Sunshine Girl Simone Forbes was voted into the first vice-president position. Forbes also serves as a vice-president of Netball Jamaica.

Other members of the new executive are Shirley Benjamin of Antigua and Barbuda (secretary), St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Jacintha Ballentine (treasurer), and St Maarten’s Javon Edwards (second vice-president.

Adams was upbeat about the results and said that she was looking forward to taking up the mantle. She says she intends to continue with projects that Bernard spearheaded, which includes upskilling the region to improve the level of the sport and reduce the gap between Jamaica and the rest of the countries in the Americas.

“We have started working on several projects, governance, umpiring, coaching, table officiating, high performance, and so on, and there are some new ones that we would like to do.

We would like to look at the development of the region and in developing the region we will be looking at Under-14s, Under-16s, Under-19s, going right up because recently it was announced at the Commomwealth Games that we will have a 14 to 19 age group Fast Five tournament in Trinidad and Tobago,” Adams said.

Forbes was also looking forward to the challenge of playing her part in improving netball in the region. She said: “Two things I would love to see happen, grass roots netball development and playing more competitive netball in the region, and, of course, the athletes having a voice, more player centred and game centred,” the Jamaican said.

Outgoing President Marva Bernard said: “I thought we did our best with the executive that we had. We used the development fund that World Netball gave us to upskill our members until when the pandemic lifted and so we would be in a better position to administer sport in the countries.”