PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC- Barbados-born Trinidad and Tobago national Lilia Mathurin- Cameron says she has no regrets after becoming the newest Caribbean national to be recruited to the list of the world’s best umpires.
Mathurin-Cameron, 49, has joined an elite list of 36 umpires from around the world appointed by the International Netball Federation (INF).
She earned her International Umpires Award (IUA) after officiating at the Netball University Games in Florida in July.
“My coach Veronica McDonald bullied me into umpiring, which I don’t regret and then my very first mentor Anne-Marie Dickson-Lewis told me I had to umpire because I have good potential to become an international umpire. Guess she was right!” said Mathurin-Cameron, who migrated from Barbados to Trinidad when she was eight.
“I was very thankful to God that he let it happen for me. I’m very excited to know that all my hard work has paid off and happy that finally I did it”.
Mathurin-Cameron joins another local umpire on the INF elite list, Joel Young-Strong.
Both are following in the footsteps of Anne-Marie Dickson-Lewis, the first ever netball umpire from T&T to make the elite list.
“I had to do the preliminary theory exam, then the practical after umpiring 50 games or more. The intermediate theory and practical followed and then move on to advance,” she recalled.
“When I got through with intermediate I started to umpire at the Under-16 Caribbean Championship, which I did from 2010 to 2016, during which time I became an (Itid) international talent identify in 2012”.
Mathurin-Cameron’s first assignment was at the recently concluded Americas Federation of Netball Associations (AFNA) qualifiers in St Maarten, where winner Barbados, second-placed T&T, and third-placed Grenada, advanced to the Youth Netball World Cup in Botswana, next year.
