And just like that, the Commonwealth Games are over for another 4 years. A lot of netball was packed into those ten terrific days at the NEC, so in case any of you have been hiding under a rock these last couple of weeks, we’ve decided to give you a rundown of all the exciting moments from this year’s netball at the Commonwealth Games.
Wales beat Scotland! We knew this would be a tight game. Scotland and Wales were ranked 8th and 9th respectively at the time, but a fair too many inaccurate shots from under the post by Scotland, meant Wales managed to finish with a comfortable score line against the Scottish Thistles 48-42. This was Wales’ first win in their group matches. They also went on to beat Barbados 60-44.
Guscoth shows us her pole dancing skills. Guscoth decided to change her bib position to Post Defence during the first couple of minutes in the semi-final match against Australia. Guscoth will always stop at nothing when intercepting balls but this level of dedication ended with Guscoth crashing into the post, leaving it bent and unusable. Although it looked like a painful collision, Guscoth was all smiles and many fans saw the humorous side to the situation. Have you seen the TikTok video the Commonwealth uploaded?
England won all of their group matches, unfortunately a medal wasn’t in sight. After our glorious win in 2018, we were hoping England would bring the same energy a second time, and it was looking that way. England won all their group matches; something Australia failed to do. However, that defeat from Jamaica made Australia more ball hungry and we unfortunately lost the semi-finals 51-60. England couldn’t seem to be able to shake off this loss as the lack of confidence showed in the Bronze medal match against New Zealand. It was a disappointing end for England fans but hopefully Jess and the girls can make the necessary changes needed for next year.
Jamaica won the hearts of the English crowd.
This Jamaican team surprised everyone this year at the Commonwealth Games. They not only won all their group matches (including an impressive win against Australia), they thrashed New Zealand in their semi-final match 67-51, and kept Australia on their toes in the final. Even though they finished with silver, the Sunshine Girls broke so many of their own records this year, and they have now taken England’s 3rd place World Netball ranking. This is definitely a team to keep your eyes on.
Australia reclaim gold! 2018 and 2019 were not Australia’s best years as they lost by one goal difference for both Commonwealth and World Cup victory. Now after a long break due to Covid-19, the Australian Diamonds returned to court in top form and reclaimed their first place title. Even though the British public were cheering for Jamaica to take gold, there’s no denying how superb Australia played throughout the Commonwealth Games, and they truly deserved that first place title.
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