infonews.co.nz
INDEX
NETBALL

World Netball Championship Pool Draw

Tuesday 14 December 2010, 4:52PM

By Netball New Zealand

305 views

Molly Rhone, President of the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) was in Singapore today to make the draw for the much anticipated WNC 2011 pools. The Championship will be held at Singapore Indoor Stadium from 3rd – 10th July.

The format of play for the World Championships will see the 16 competing teams divided into four pools of four. The top five countries from WNC 2007 and hosts Singapore had previously been seeded and divided amongst four  pools with the remaining 10 countries drawn from two groups- those who had qualified first and the five second qualifiers from each region.

Australia, who finished in first place in WNC 2007 will be placed in Pool A, New Zealand in 2nd place will be in Pool B, Jamaica in 3rd place is in Pool C and both England and Malawi as 4th and 5th respectively comprise Pool D. Singapore as host is also allocated in Pool C.

Following the draw, Pool A teams will compete against each other in the round robin qualifiers with Pool B, C and D also competing within their respective pools to decide the top and bottom eight teams. The top and bottom eight will then compete against each other in respective quarter and semi finals. A Grand Final series will be contested by the top eight teams.

Pool A

Pool B

Pool C

Pool D

AUSTRALIA

NEW ZEALAND

JAMAICA

ENGLAND

Sri Lanka

Trinidad & Tobago

SINGAPORE

MALAWI

Northern Ireland

Fiji

South Africa

Barbados

Samoa

Wales

Botswana

Malaysia

Commenting on Singapore’s Pool C line up, National coach Kate Carpenter, said: “It is a very tough draw. In terms of those nations – Jamaica, South Africa and Botswana, they are very tall, very athletic players. Especially to get two African nations - we haven’t played South Africa or Botswana recently so we will have to learn more about their style of play but it is an opportunity to compete more against different types of play.”

IFNA President, Molly Rhone praised Singapore’s preparations for next year, saying, “Singapore have been very efficient in preparation. I don’t think there has been a country that has hosted the Championship that has been this prepared. I am looking forward to a really great Championship next year”.

Final fixtures for the round robin play will be released in Q1 2011. Tickets for the games can be purchased online from SISTIC with Silver (8-Day Season Package) and Bronze packages (3-Day Finals Series Package) going on sale on 1st January 2011.