Home » Events » Netball World Cup » Kingston 2003
Champions: New Zealand (4th Title)
Runners Up: Australia
Dates: July 10-20, 2003
Venue: National Indoor Stadium (Indoors)
Host City/Country: Kingston, Jamaica
Number of Teams: 24
Matches Played: 100
Number of Goals Scored: 9,243
Kingston welcomed the netball world for the second time to host the 11th staging of the Netball World Cup. Kingston hosted the 3rd ever staging back in 1971 and would be the destination for the 1st championship of the new millennium.
The vibrant crowd would create a special atmosphere during the matches recalls, TVNZ Commentator Brendan Telfer, “The crowds was amazing, they were singing and chanting and cheering all of the time.
“ They were so noisy and so colourful and vibrant.”
Lights Out
Jamaica is a country that can experience power outages, more frequently than some players were used to. This happened during a Jamaica and Australia match, in which Australian coach Jill McIntosh had a plan on what to do.
“I think it was in the second quarter of our game against them (Jamaica) when the lights went out.
“We were told about this before we left Australia and we practiced what we would do.
“The team manager had a torch, and everyone was to come to the torch and sit quietly in a group, and that’s what we did!”
Streak Breakers
The final once again came down to Australia and New Zealand. The pressure was on for the Silver Ferns as it had been 16 years since they had last defeated Australia at a Netball World Cup.
Silver Ferns legend, Leigh Gibbs recalls the 16 years of near misses that they had been through. “I had suffered, as many New Zealanders had, the disappointments of having lost the previous World Netball Championships in between times.
“Those one-goal losses that was just so devastating.”
The final was again close, but there would be no near misses for New Zealand this time as they would defeat their rivals 49-47 to claim their 4th world title.
1st – New Zealand
2nd – Australia
3rd – Jamaica
4th – England
5th – South Africa
6th – Samoa
7th – Barbados
8th – Fiji
9th – USA
10th – Trinidad & Tobago
11th – Cook Islands
12th – Niue
13th – St Vincent & Grenadines
14th – Wales
15th – Scotland
16th – St Lucia
17th – Antigua & Barbuda
18th – Sri Lanka
19th – Northern Ireland
20th – Grenada
21st – Canada
22nd – Bermuda
23rd – Hong Kong
24th – Cayman Islands
Video Courtesy – Silver Ferns TV