DESPITE a glittering international career there is yet one item that has eluded Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls Captain Jhaniele Fowler — a medal at a Netball World Cup (NWC) tournament.

Fowler, widely rated the best goal shooter in the world, led the Sunshine Girls to a historic silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, last August.

She was also a member of Jamaica’s team that won bronze medals at the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games.

However, the towering goal shooter who plies her trade with the West Coast Fever in the Australian Suncorp Super League and is the reigning four-time Most Valuable Player (MVP) of that competition, is yet to win a medal for Jamaica at her previous three attempts at the NWC.

Nevertheless the 33-year-old Fowler, who is coming off another excellent season for West Coast Fever, told the Jamaica Observer she is confident of breaking the World Cup medal drought on the fourth attempt.

“I am yet to win a World Cup medal and so I am looking forward to achieving that medal this year. This is my fourth try at it and so I am going all out for it in South Africa,” she said.

Fowler said the team is in high spirits ahead of the opening game against minnows Sri Lanka on Friday. “The team feeling is good, because you know that the entire team hasn’t been together for a while now and so these practice sessions are really good for us before the start of the tournament on Friday.

“We know that it is going to be massive, and we are mentally and physically prepared because we know that without the strong mentality it is going to be hard so we have to be strong mentally,” Fowler said. “We know that the teams are coming for us and we know that we have to be physically strong to withstand the pressure of these teams,” she added.

The Sunshine Girls’ failures at the three previous World Cups include a disheartening fifth-place finish at the last tournament which was held in Liverpool, England, in 2019.

Fowler pointed out that the team has put this disappointment behind them and says the players are aiming to take the gold medal home, especially given that the final is scheduled for August 6 — the date Jamaicans traditionally celebrate Independence Day.

“We have put the last World Cup behind us because we know that wasn’t the performance that we wanted to put out there, and so we are going to go out there fresh for this World Cup and the mindset is to go for the win in every game,” she said.

“It will mean a lot to us if we can win that gold medal on Independence Day, because one of our games last year at the Commonwealth Games was on Independence Day as well and we know how much it means to us to play on this day.

“We want to give Jamaica an Independence Day gift, and that will be like the ultimate gift to give them from us — which is that gold medal,” Fowler told the Observer.