Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

RHONE

Jamaica have made a bid to host next year's World Netball Championships (WNC). This was confirmed yesterday by International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) president, Molly Rhone.

According to Rhone Jamaica, which success-fully hosted the tour-nament in 2003, is among four countries to have expressed an interest in staging the 2007 tournament.

The Jamaican head of the sport's world gover-ning body stated that they have already held dis-cussions with three of the nations.

"We have been talking to three of these countries, New Zealand, Jamaica and England," Rhone told The Gleaner yesterday.

She added that Australia have also expressed an interest in hosting the event.

Fiji had won the right to host the event, slated to run from July 10-21 next year. However, the Oceania nation lost the privilege to stage the championship following a military coup in that country on December 5.

Rhone, a Jamaican resident and former president of the Jamaica Netball Association (JNA), pointed out that none of the teams have yet to establish a lead position in the race to stage its next event.

"There are no clear front-runners right now to host the championships. But New Zealand was the first team that said they would like to host the tournament, but we have not yet made a decision."

When contacted yester-day, JNA president Marva Bernard says her executive body are in discussions about hosting the tournament.

"It's being discussed now among our executives at the moment. It's not going to be offered to us, we'd have to make an offer to them. A decision will be made soon, and then we will send out a press release."