Youth netballers defeat Ireland 85-9

SINGAPORE – The Republic’s netballers scored their second victory at the World Youth Netball Championships in Glasgow today (Aug 26) with a strong 85-9 win over the Republic of Ireland in their final group match.

The 21-&Under team had started their World Youth Championships campaign on Friday with a 54-39 victory over Papua New Guinea, but were defeated subsequently by their stronger group opponents, England (82-26) and Barbados (67-38), over the weekend. Determined to finish the preliminary round on a high, the Singaporean girls stormed to a 40-5 lead against the Irish in the first half. With the mid-court trio of Shelby Koh, Parveen Nair and Siti Nurshawallah on fire in the next period, the team out-paced their weaker opponents to claim victory 85-9 at the full-time whistle.

Said Co-Captain Koh Hin Ann: “We really wanted to win. We played steady and provided each other with options. Our shooters did really well and it was good preparation for our next matches.”

Added coach Joanne Loo: “Today, we had to work hard to win that match. We were trying to get some flow from the game to prepare for the next matches. I thought we did really well in the attack so that was great for us.”

The Singaporeans’ record of two wins and two losses have placed them in third spot in the group, and they will progress to the second round of playoffs for positions nine to 16 on Wednesday.