Wales have qualified for the IFNA World Netball Championships in Singapore in 2011 after a nailbiting weekend of European qualifiers in Glasgow.

Having been well beaten by Northern Ireland, who finished last in April' s Open event when the countries last met, Wales went into the weekend's final match against hosts Scotland with both teams needing a win to secure the vital second qualifying spot behind the Irish.

In the end they triumphed 49-44.

During the course of the weekend Sara Hale became only the seventh Welsh player to reach the landmark of 50 international caps. Chelsea Lewis, aged just 16, became the 190th Welsh international and also the youngest.

It means that they will join the world's leading countries in Singapore next July. It will be their second visit to Singapore in eight months as Wales are one of six teams scheduled to compete in the prestigious Six Nations Cup in the country in December 2010.

Two teams from Europe qualify, along with the top five from the 2007 event (Australia, New Zealand, England, Jamaica, Malawi), the hosts (Singapore) and two teams from each of the other four IFNA global regions - Oceania, Asia, the Americas and Africa.

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SQUAD:
Defence
Jo Davies, Sara Hale, Stephanie Murphy, Stephanie Williams

Centre Court
Suzy Drane (Captain), Nichola James, Sophie Morgan, Amanda Trounce

Shooters
Becky James, Chelsea Lewis, Cara Lea Moseley, Emma Thomas

Management:
Melissa Hyndman (High Performance Coach)
Laura Williams (Assistant Coach)
Wendy Pressdee (Team Manager)
Dave Saunders (Physiotherapist)

Welsh Netball Chief Executive Mike Fatkin said:
"This will be a real boost to netball in Wales as it ensures we will have a really high profile event to aim for over the coming year. We're all really proud of Melissa and the girls. We knew it would be a really hard fought weekend. Netball Europe in April proved that there is not a lot between the teams but the girls showed real character and they can now look forward to a bit of a break from competitive netball in the knowledge that they've secured Wales's place amongst the elite nations for the World Championships next July. After good performances to finish 6th in Superleague and 2nd in Netball Europe it rounds off a solid season on a real high."