SYDNEY will be sport central in 2015, with a world netball championship to be played in front of world record crowds completing a trifecta of major events to be hosted by the Olympic city in 2015.
SYDNEY will be sport central in 2015, with a world netball
championship to be played in front of world record crowds completing a trifecta
of major events to be hosted by the Olympic city in 2015.
Sydney will host Asian Cup games, which include the decider
at Stadium Australia, and ICC Cricket World Cup matches in February/March with
the world netball championships to be played from August 7-16.
These three international showcase events will be complemented
by regular Sydney sporting events such as State of Origin rugby league, the
Golden Slipper, the annual ANZAC DAY test between the Dragons and Roosters and
the Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Boxing Day.
Yesterday tournament officials confirmed netball fans will
be delivered more games and better quality matches than ever before at a world
championship event.
The tournament, where Australian and New Zealand will clash
early in the tournament instead of just in the decider thanks to a format
revamp, will also be played at the biggest stadium in the championships history
with Allphones Arena at Sydney Olympic Park able to host around 17,000 fans.
"They will be world record crowd I am certain,'' said
Netball Australia boss Kate Palmer who helped formulate the new format which
will pit top teams against each other in both the rounds and the finals series
for the first time.
Michelle den Dekker, the last captain to lead an Australian
team to victory at home, said the win back in 1991 remains a highlight of her
career.
"I can still remember the noise from our final. You
seriously couldn't hear a thing,'' said den Dekker of Australia's one-goal win
over New Zealand at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.
When den Dekker was in charge she and her teammates earned
around $8.40 a day as top netballers, lived in a Sydney university dormitory,
ate meals in a cafeteria and functioned without a team doctor, nutritionist or
psychologist.
When de Dekker, now the Australian assistant coach, is next
involved in a home challenge in 2015 players and team staff will stay in a
five-star hotel, have access to the best technical and medical resources
available to elite athletes and be watched by a record crowd of around 17,000.
And while things have changed for the better in terms of
funding, backing and general support for netball since the last event in 1991,
den Dekker is still hoping for the same result as Australia achieved _ a
cliffhanger win by the hosts.
"That game, the final, sort of started those great, one
goal battles that have been going on ever since,'' den Dekker said of a match
which helped change the perception of netball as a "girlie" sport to
that of a tough, physical contest between highly skilled athletes..
"It was an event that really changed the way people
looked at us. We went from women who played a game in a park in the eyes of
people, to real athletes who people recognised.''
Current Australian coach Laura Gietz, just six when the
famous final between the two powers of netball was played in Sydney, doesn't
remember then Prime Minister Bob Hawke pumping the air in triumph or embracing
Australian players after the win.
"I was six. I don't remember it at all, sorry,'' she
laughed.
"But I do know how special it is to play at home and I
can't wait.''
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