After 23 years, St. Vincent and the Grenadines have secured a spot in the World Netball World Cup Finals.
In a veritable 47th independence anniversary gift to the nation Monday night, the Vincy Jewels secured their spot at games slated for Sydney, Australia next year after a dramatic 55-53 overtime victory over St. Lucia in Barbados.
SVG were pushed in the first three quarters, with St. Lucia leading in the first quarter 11–10 before the Vincy Jewels fought back to take the second and third quarters 24–22 and 36 – 33.
However, dramatically, taking advantage of a lapse in concentration by the Jewels, the Piton Sparks forced the game into overtime after tying the game at 45 points.
After two 7-minute overtime periods, the Vincy Jewels prevailed 55-53 to take the second available spot.
The SVG team amassed 18 points from 7 games, losing 1 and winning 6. St. Lucia finished sixth on 6 points from their seven games, winning 2 and losing 5.
The other qualifier, Trinidad and Tobago, beat Barbados 60–51 to end the qualifying round without loss.
The Calypso Girls finished at the top of the table with the maximum 21 points from their seven games, while Barbados finished in fourth place with 12 points, winning 4 matches and losing 3 from their 7 matches.
Earlier, the USA defeated the BVI 80-06 to end their campaign in third place on 15 points from 5 wins and 2 losses.
The BVI lost all of their 7 matches to finish at the bottom of the ranking — on zero points.
Canada finished their 2026 Qualifying campaign in fifth place with a 42–40 defeat of Grenada in their seventh.
The Canadians ended with 3 wins and 4 losses, which gave them 9 points, and Grenada in sixth place with 3 points, having won one of their seven games.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines made their Netball World Cup Final debut at the 1979 World Netball Championships in Trinidad and Tobago.
In 1995, the Vincentians achieved their highest-ever World Cup finish of 10th place at in England.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines finished in 13th place at the 2003 World Netball Championships in Jamaica.
This was followed by a 23-year drought until Monday night’s historic finish.
Adding to the sweetness of Netball World Cup qualification, Vincy Jewels goal-shooter Mary-Ann Frederick was judged the Most Accurate Goal-shooter, with 95.25% shooting accuracy.
Frederick scored 341 goals from 358 attempts and was also adjudged to be the tournament’s most valuable player.