The Netball World Cup 2019 Experience

Not many would know that I am a massive fan of Netball, so when I got the invite from Nike London to be hosted at the Netball World Cup 2019 in Liverpool I was ecstatic. Yes! Netball World Cup takes place every four years. I had the pleasure of watching the England V Uganda game on the 12th of July.

To my surprise the M&S Bank Arena was full, I was astonished at my lack of knowledge of the entire tournament. The game was intense, reminding me of my Netball days back when I was at primary school. Watching the game with a few of the Nike team made me a little emotional. I felt like the little girl that was once excited about playing Netball almost everyday at school. This made me question why I no longer played the sport, as gym nowadays can definitely seem like a drag at times.

However, Netball? This sport could never be a drag, hence why now I look to challenge myself by keeping fit whilst engaging in sport I enjoy. Since leaving school I have reduced the amount of sport I partake in, and this game gave me the motivation to start playing again. Whilst watching the match, it came to my attention that I had never watched a live game of sport where women were the players; it felt surreal!

The England vs. Uganda match was an intense game, both teams showed poise and strong technique in their defending and passing skills; with England winning 64-32. Being excited about the game, I shared every update on Instagram and to my surprise the majority of my friends felt the same way. A wave of nostalgic messages came through via direct messages and photo comments, interestingly we all still felt passionate about the sport. However, for some strange reason we all no longer played, but still shared the desire to play if there were netball teams nearby. This event has changed my perspective on women in sport, and how important it is to initiate different activities when with my female friends.

I would like to say a big thank you to Nike for accepting the challenge of working towards motivating young women to play sport. If I were not invited to the game, I would have not had an open conversation about sport with my friends. The passion we all had for Netball would have been a faded memory, but thanks to Nike I was able to relive these nostalgic moments with friends.