18 Jul 2017

Botswana under 21 netball national team settled for position 10 in the Netball World Youth Cup, which was held in Gaborone last week.

Dinaletsana were beaten 41-56 by neighbours Zimbabwe in the ninth and tenth place playoff on Saturday to finish tenth out of 20 countries.

It was a commendable placing by coach Setshedi Botlhole-Mmopi’s team, which had excited the nation with courageous displays throughout the competition.

Players like captain Sarona Hans, Pearl Maribe, Boikanyo Selogetso, Cheludo David, Amantle Never and Mondida Mbangiwa caught the eye with impressive performances as Dinaletsana narrowly failed to advance to the quarterfinals in Pool C.

They started the tournament with in thrilling fashion by thrashing Malaysia 72-26.

In their second match, Dinaletsana continued their winning streak with a 51-41 victory against Cook Islands as national support for the team swelled at the magnificent University of Botswana Indoor Sports Centre.

Even though they went on to lose with a narrow 42-46 score against Uganda, Dinaletsana went out of the tournament fighting as they stunned highly rated Jamaica 48-46 in their last pool match.  

They finished the pool tied on six points with Uganda and Jamaica, but an inferior goal ratio compared to their two counterparts placed Dinaletsana on position three.

After that near-miss Botswana beat Wales and Samoa before crashing to Zimbabwe in their last match.

In other playoff placement matches Samoa finished on position 11 after beating Cook Islands 64-37. Cook Islands settled for twelfth place. Wales edged Trinidad & Tobago 44-43 to finish 13th with the Carribeans finishing 14th, while Barbados finished in 15th place after beating Northen Island 54-42.

Malaysia beat Singapore 64-44 to finish in position 17 with Singapore settling for position 18. Sri Lanka came 19th after beating Grenada 51-48. Grenada finished in the last position.

Meanwhile, Fiji Islands were awarded the rights to host the next under-21 tournament in 2021. ENDS