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No one could call versatile and long-serving Cook Islands goal keep Angela Tangimetua long in the tooth after yesterday's seventh and eighth place playoff against Samoa at the world netball championship.
At 33 and with four world championships behind her since she competed at the 1991 Sydney event, Tangimetua showed a ton of courage as her team battled mightily to down Samoa 56-55 in an epic island encounter.
Cook Islands coach, former Silver Fern, Ana Noovao, said Tangimetua, who started her netball career as a shooter, was an invaluable part of the Cook Islands team and would be retiring from international netball after the world championships.
Halfway through the second quarter, Tangimetua took a blow to the mouth in an accidental goal circle collision and chipped a tooth.
But Noovao wasn't ready to bench one of her most valuable players, as the Samoans fought to cut back the Cook Islands lead to 32-29 at halftime.
"She got her tooth chipped off, and you've got to be careful," Noovao said. "We whisked her off to the doctor here, and she was allowed to play with a mouthguard. I just said to her 'I want you back on there, I want you to finish on a high'."
So Tangimetua took to the court for the fourth quarter, with the Samoans closing to trail 45-42 with 15 minutes remaining, and her combination with goal defence Paula Te Huna proved vital in holding off the Samoan onslaught over the last few minutes.
"Angela's my co-captain, and she's been an integral part of our build-up. She's just outstanding - what a way to go out."
The win boosts Cook Islands' world ranking from 11th to seventh, and Noovao said she was rapt with the effort, especially as it was the first world championship for 10 of the 12 squad players.
She hoped the lift in ranking would help with more funding for the sport in the Cook Islands.
"We need more. When I took on the job I asked for a lot of things for how I would run it, and that's coming from the Silver Ferns' set-up.
"I couldn't get all I wanted - in fact I hardly got anything except for girls that really wanted to play for their country."
Noovao said the Cook Islands had waited until the last match of the championship to bring out their best game.
- NZPA
