Ten SEA Games Players make the team

Following a successful SEA Games campaign, Netball Singapore today announced the team of 12 players selected for the Netball World Cup 2015 which will be held in Sydney, Australia from 7 to 16 August.

Just ten days after the SEA Games netball event concluded on 7 June, the Opens squad of 23 players and 2 training partners regrouped and went through another round of selection trials for the Netball World Cup. This meant that players who did not make the SEA Games team due to non-selection or injury, had the second opportunity to represent Singapore, this time in the World Cup. It also meant that Head Coach, Ruth Aitken, have had the chance to relook at her charges following the SEA Games.

Of the 12 players, 10 players from the SEA Games team have been reselected. Shooter Yu Mei Ling and defender Olivia Flanagan have both earned a recall into the national team following successful rehabilitation from ACL injuries last year.

Yu has 23 international caps and has played in the Nations Cup from 2011 to 2013. She was also part of the victorious Asian Championships team in 2012. Flanagan has 9 international caps and was named the most valuable player for Singapore in the 2013 Nations Cup which finished runners-up after losing to Uganda in the finals. Both players will bring experience and a different playing style into the current team.
Captain Micky Lin Qingyi and co-vice captains Chen Huifen and Nurul Baizura will continue to lead the team. Chen has recently achieved her centurion of international caps during the SEA Games, a feat that only two other Singapore players, Premila Hirubalan and former Captain, Jean Ng have attained.

Head Coach, Ruth Aitken said, “The opportunity to compete at the Netball World Cup only comes around every four years and as such it is a huge honour to gain selection to represent Singapore. I am very proud of the success this team has achieved in recent times, and I know that we will all be doing our absolute best to lift another level to compete successfully on the international stage.”
The competition in the Netball World Cup will be much tougher than the SEA Games as Singapore will face world number 5, Malawi, world number 6, South Africa and Asia rivals Sri Lanka, who is ranked 24th in Pool C. Singapore is currently ranked 17th in the world. The top two teams in the pool will compete for the 1st to 8th positions while the bottom two will compete for the 9th to 16th positions in the qualification rounds and ranking games.

In the previous edition of the World Netball Championships which was hosted here in Singapore in 2011, the Singapore national team finished 15th out of 16 teams. Singapore will be aiming for an improvement over that finish.

Aitken has recently penned a new one-year contract extension with Netball Singapore, bringing her term to July 2016. This is a boost for Singapore netball as Aitken is key to the team’s recent accomplishment in the Asian Championships and SEA Games. Under Aitken, the pool of elite players has expanded and the team has adopted a strong winning mentality and teamwork.

Singapore will begin their campaign against Sri Lanka on 7 August at the Netball Central in the Sydney Olympic Park. The Sri Lankans were beaten by Singapore 59-41 in the finals of the Mission Foods Asian Netball Championships in September 2014 and they will be relishing the rematch. Both teams qualified for the Netball World Cup after finishing top two in the Mission Foods Asian Netball Championships in 2014.

Following the conclusion of the Netball World Cup, the Opens squad will take a well-earned break before once again regrouping to begin the selection process for Nations Cup 2015. The 10th edition of Nations Cup will take place from 13 to 19 December with the Singapore team announcement in November.

Netball World Cup Team: