Jamaica captain Simone Forbes shows off the Americas Federation of Netball Associations' championship trophy at the Norman Manley International Airport yesterday. The Sunshine Girls defeated Trinidad and Tobago 53-32 in the final on Friday. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

DESPITE JAMAICA sweeping all their games en route to winning this year's Americas Federation of Netball Associations (AFNA) championship title, coach Connie Francis yesterday said victory was no a easy feat.

"I don't think it was an easy tournament, I thought the girls let it look easy because it was a really good team effort that pulled this one off," said Francis shortly after the team arrived at the Norman Manley International Airport yesterday.

Defeated arch-rivals

Jamaica defeated arch-rivals Trinidad and Tobago 53-32 in the championship match on Friday. They finished the tournament as the only unbeaten team in the competition and won every preliminary round match by at least a 20-goal margin.

In the final, Jamaica had quarter scores of 18-7, 28-16 and 42-25 before eventually winning by 21 goals.

Captain Simone Forbes, hit 27 goals from 30 attempts, Crystal Gordon scored 20 from 28 tries, Christina Solmon scored a perfect three goals from three attempts and Vanessa Walker score three from four tries.

Trinidad and Tobago finished second, Barbados third, St. Lucia fourth, St. Vincent and the Grenadines fifth with Canada in the cellar position.

Impressive performance

Jamaica included six Under-21 players in the team for the tournament and Francis was impressed by the performance of the youngsters.

"I think that the Under-21 players really played well, and I think the future for us looks very bright," she said. "I believe they responded to Simone (Forbes) really well because whenever things were not working well on court she pulled everybody together and got them to refocus again."

Forbes, who captained the side for the first time on an overseas assignment, was delighted with the victory.

"It feels good, especially sharing it with this bunch of girls," she said.