Bajan returned as regional netball boss

Kathy Harper-Hall has been returned as president of the Caribbean Netball Association (CNA) for what she expects to be her last term in the position. Barbados-based Harper-Hall, who has been serving regional netball for the past 33 years, was re-elected unopposed for a fourth consecutive term at the weekend’s CNA annual general meeting at the Cascadia Hotel in St Ann’s.

St Lucia’s netball president Rufina Paul is Hall’s first vice-president, and St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Gloria Ballantyne, the outgoing first vice-president, is now second vice-president.  Vincentian Sonia Lewis remains secretary and Barbadian Juliet Cumberbatch is back as treasurer.  Harper-Hall, who began her first term as CNA president in 1998, believes she has “given quite a lot” to the sport and plans to step down from the position at the end of this two-year term.

“I think it’s time for me to give way to someone else,” Harper-Hall told CMC Sport.  “I have served the region and I think I have served the region quite well. I have been serving the region non-stop since 1971 either on the executive or on one of the sub-committees,” she added. During the congress, members voted against a proposal to dissolve the CNA in order to form one body governing netball in the Caribbean and the Americas.  At present, the CNA runs Caribbean netball and the American Federation of Netball Associations (AFNA) is in charge of the Americas, including the Caribbean and Canada and the United States. The CNA is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and 2004 also marks the 50th anniversary of organised tournament netball in the region.  The 2004 senior championship will be staged in Trinidad from July 29 to August 10.