WITH just over two weeks to go before the start of this year’s Netball World Cup (NWC) in Cape Town, South Africa, former national defender Nicole Aiken-Pinnock is backing the Sunshine Girls to take the gold medal home to Jamaica.

The much-anticipated Netball World Cup will be from July 28 to August 6, the first time the championships will be played on the African continent.

Aiken-Pinnock was a member of the Sunshine Girls team that won a bronze medal at the championships in 2007, in Auckland, New Zealand. The Sunshine Girls have failed to win a medal at the last three championships. In fact, the team finished fifth at the last tournament, which was held in 2019 in Liverpool, England.

However, the Sunshine Girls rebounded to capture a historic silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.

Aiken-Pinnock told the Jamaica Observer that the Sunshine Girls have a very strong squad entering the championships and she is optimistic their medal drought is near an end.

“I am confident in what we have going into the World Cup. I am very confident in the ladies, and we have a team, and I think the ladies are hungry and they know that they can actually do well at the World Cup,” said Aiken-Pinnock.

“I am expecting them to do their best and concentrate throughout the tournament, and just execute the quality netball that we know that they are able to showcase.

“Win, lose or draw, I am going to be proud of them. Knowing what the World Championships takes from you and knowing what we have, I know that we are going to finish on that podium,” said Aiken-Pinnock, who is the older sister of Sunshine Girls goal shooter Romelda Aiken.

Aiken-Pinnock, who retired from international netball more than eight years ago and who has been coaching at the club level, recently led an under-strength Sunshine Girls team to a historic gold medal at the Central America and Caribbean (CAC) Games in El Salvador last Friday.

She pointed out that there is going be a lot of pressure on the team at the Netball World Cup, but she is confident they will rise to the occasion.

“It is just about focusing on what you can control because you can’t look at the distraction around you,” said Aiken-Pinnock. “You are there to do a job, and I know that these ladies understand that because a lot of them play in the professional leagues and so they know what it takes to come under pressure and actually execute under pressure,” she said.

“It will be tough, because nobody is coming to any tournament to give anybody a medal so you have to play for that, but I have a strong belief in the team that they will play for that medal position,” Aiken-Pinnock ended.