Jamaican international Kadie-Ann Dehaney was recently selected to represent her country at the upcoming 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
While Dehaney has represented the Jamaican Sunshine Girls several times, this will be her first time competing at the Games.
Dehaney, who will be heading to Jamaica this Friday for a training camp, said she was looking forward to reuniting with her Jamaican teammates.
“It’s always exciting to go back to hang out with the Jamaicans. It’s always good banter, good laughs and good fun,” she said.
“It’s also a privilege to represent your country and anyone who has ever done it before understands the privilege it is.”
The Sunshine Girls Team includes a number of familiar faces from the SSN, including the likes of Jhaniele Fowler, Shimona Nelson, Shamera Sterling, Jodi-Ann Ward and Latanya Wilson.
“The majority of this squad has been together a while. Shimona is coming in and she hasn’t been consistently in the squad so I’m looking forward to going back and building on that chemistry and connection with her — dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s heading into the Commonwealth Games,” Dehaney said.
“It’s also good to be back on the same side as Jhaniele. It’s definitely not good being the opposition against Jhaniele — I wish everyone luck coming into the Commonwealth Games against her. It should be a good competition.”
As the Origin Australian Diamonds, English Roses and New Zealand Ferns squads have been announced, it’s clear the top spot will be highly contested, with an incredible display of talent across all the teams.
But Dehaney has no doubts her team can match the world-leaders.
“We are definitely looking strong going into the Commonwealth Games. But as cliché as it sounds, we are just looking at one game at a time and not getting too far ahead. At the moment we’re just focusing on us because we know we have a good group going into the Games,” she said.
Dehaney will spend some time in Jamaica with her teammates before heading to Birmingham to get a practise match under their belts.
