A FINAL that exceeded expectations followed by a grand, colourful closing ceremony, brought the curtains down on the 11-day Cable & Wireless World Netball Championship at the National Indoor Sports Centre in Kingston last night.
Jamaican supporters, players from the 24 competing countries and accompanying fans crammed the 3,500-seat arena for a fiesta of sorts to watch four countries compete at netball's highest level.
At the end, New Zealand won over the largely Jamaican crowd and had its name informally changed to the Golden Ferns after they upstaged fellow Pacific nation Australia 49-47 for the championship title.
The victory gave the New Zealand netballers, who are also known as the Silver Ferns and the Kiwis, a fourth hold on the trophy.
Australia had won it seven times in 11 championships and were gunning for their fourth straight victory.
THIRD FOR JAMAICA
Hosts Jamaica had much to celebrate also after upstaging England 46-40 to place third in the world.
Jamaica were fourth coming into the tournament and their best-ever finish prior to now was third in 1991 under coach Maureen Hall, who yesterday announced her retirement from the sport.
Two other Caribbean countries, Barbados and Trinidad, also earned top 10 finishes. Barbados defeated Fiji 47-45 yesterday.
