Sonya Ottaway downplays USA's chances

USA is a superpower, but when it gets to netball, they concede they aren’t anywhere close to giants.

Netball America boss Sonya Ottaway says that for that reason they will use the forthcoming World University Netball Championships as a development project.

Most of our girls have been only playing netball for a few months, the team have never even played one game together yet,” wrote Ottaway.

USA will next week be one of the first foreign sides to arrive for the five day competition at Makerere University.

Ottaway, however, describes netball as a serious development project in the US.

“We have now successfully got 100 schools playing across USA. So our girls are coming as ambassadors to show the world that we are developing the sport with the Americans and they represent.”

USA who hosted the last event in Florida will be the first country to arrive on September 14.

Burundi, Kenya, Singapore, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and hosts Uganda have confirmed participation.

Team Uganda is training at the MTN Arena in Lugogo and Ndejje University on the outskirts of Kampala city.

World Cup qualifiers and East African Community Games.

South Africa won the last edition in Miami, USA where Uganda finished fourth after being beaten to bronze by Australia.

Host nations organize the biennial event together with the Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire (FISU).

In July, 2012, the first World University Netball Championship was held in Cape Town, South Africa.

The South African Federation of University Sports organised the event. It is a women's indoor tournament with a maximum of 12 teams competing.

A total of 12 competitors and five officials are allowed per team.