Cape Town — THE happy ending to the Gems' Netball World Cup campaign has drawn praises from the Government with Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Kirsty Coventry saluting the girls' gallantry act at the International Convention Centre here yesterday.
Zimbabwe put together a top drawer performance with a commanding 75-48 victory over Barbados to nail a 13th place at the 16-team global showpiece.
They were virtually unplayable especially in the last two 15-minute phases, sweeping aside a team that cornered them only on Monday in the opening match of the second preliminary round.
Despite falling short of their ambitious top-four finish, 13th position isn't that bad especially considering the team has predominantly young players who are still learning the ropes.
And Coventry, who was scheduled to meet World Netball officials late yesterday was impressed with how the Gems carried themselves in this tournament.
"The women have done us very proud. I am glad that I managed to watch them (the Gems) in action. You know what it is like in a tournament when you have got a new team. They are a new team of young players as compared to 2019.
"This is a big platform and a lot of learning is still going on. In today's (yesterday), they adapted super quickly and I enjoyed seeing them dominating in their last game," said Coventry.
"This team has done extremely well. You can see how strong they have been in the last three games and I think it can only get stronger from here.
"We stay committed to the Gems. I have already been asking my team to look at how we can really help the development side.
"We are very proud of them. I know it is not what we would have wanted but I do believe that if this team is kept together and develops, they will build a formidable momentum going into the next four years, it will be something special in the next World Cup".
The Gems, who lost 62-45 in their first meeting with Barbados in this competition looked very sharp across the court but they were restricted heavily by their stocky opponents who ensured they carried a slight 15-14 advantage in the opening quarter.
Although the Gems did extend the lead to 30-28 at the break, they needed to do more to pin down their foes.
Once again, Wing Defender Assah Zimusi was pivotal in restricting Barbados players allowing captain Felisitas Kwangwa to intercept so many balls.
Once everyone arrived at the party, Zimbabwe showed their class with Claris Kwaramba and player of the match Nalani Makunde clearly outstanding.
They carried a hefty 52-35 lead to the third quarter and they even added more in the last 15 minutes which they enjoyed more.Coventry was impressed with the potential shown by the girls and said the country can do even better with good strategies in place.
"We have had discussions on how we can develop as a nation. You see how Malawi have improved. I think there are opportunities within Oceania for African countries," she said.
"So when we get home we will talk to the new Australian ambassador in Zimbabwe and see how we can facilitate some initiatives which will see Zimbabwe play against some of those big teams. That exposure will also help out in a big way. You can't have that exposure a few months before or a few days before like what we did this time around.
"But the federation (Zimbabwe Netball Association) should outline their strategy".
Kwaramba said the Netball World Cup has been a good platform for them to learn and it was good that the Gems recovered from early disappointment to finish 13th.
"Obviously we wanted to finish better than we did but you can see how much effort the girls put," said Kwaramba.
"It was a very difficult tournament given we lost our opening three games in the first preliminaries.
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"But we showed some good fighting spirit when recovering from all that disappointment to fetch 13th place.
"It will help in rankings and the general feeling is also that we have the potential given the way we played in the past three games".
Zimbabwe were relegated to contest for a bottom four place after failing to punch well in the opening stage preliminaries where they lost all their three Pool A matches against Australia, Fiji and Tonga.
And things seemed to be going from bad to worse after they lost their opener of the second preliminaries against Barbados on Monday.
But they bounced back with wins over Sri Lanka and Singapore to finish the bottom four competition in pole position to book a place in the 13th place play-off final to which they beat Barbados yesterday.
This was Zimbabwe's second appearance at the Netball World Cup having made their bow in England four years ago.
They finished eighth in England.
