09 Jul 2017

Netball continues to develop and grow at an extraordinary pace, said Molly Rhone, president of the International Netball Federation (INF) at the congress held at GICC recently.

She stated that their plan had been well received and had ‘excellen’t endorsement for Netball 2020 from many of their stakeholders, including the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

‘’The INF is using the power of sport on and off the field of play to make a difference and to build towards realising the vision of inspiring a young generation through the Olympic values that all of us hold,” she said.

 She further said INF’s engagement in Africa had continued at every level, with the official draw for the Netball World Youth Cup 2017 taking place in Gaborone last October, following the qualifiers “in our five regions.”

Rhone said the NWYC 2017 was the first international sporting event that Botswana had hosted, and was hugely significant for the country. It is also the INF’s first world event to be held in Africa, and first ever Netball World Youth Cup thus building on the World Youth Netball Championships “and raising our elite youth game to new levels.”

She said the vital legacy of NWYC 2017 was determination to put measures that reflected netball’s commitment to making sport a safe place where there was respect, integrity and care taken for the welfare of all involved.

“A further enduring legacy to netball is the introduction of a code of conduct for volunteers, designed to ensure that volunteers involved in NWYC2017, and future events, conduct themselves in a manner that protects the reputation, well-being and integrity of the organising committee as well as the well-being of the coaches, officials, administrators, volunteers and players,” said Rhones.

She further said another international event showcasing young netballers was the World University Netball Championship which took place in July last year in Miami Florida and South Africa won the competition.

She said last year also saw the implementation of new rules, following on from the hard work and effort put in by the Rules Advisory Panel, rules books for both netball, and Fast5 netball have now been produced.

 “We ended last year with the explosive Fast5 Netball World Series staged in Melbourne, Australia, for the very first time. The event, featuring the top six netballing nations, was won by New Zealand,’’ she further said.

She urged members to never lose sight of the importance of grass roots, as was the solid foundations of sport and development schemes had continued to take place around the world such as England Netball’s Walking Netball scheme, which offered an alternative version to less mobile netballers who still wanted to enjoy the game.

“It will be clear that we have taken our shared vision to heart, and that the INF is governing with integrity working to ‘Empower through Netball,’’ she said. ENDS