Great Britain women hockey team is going
to participate in tough and complicated Olympic qualifying oriented tournament
in Valencia, Spain. Great Britain team heading into their Olympic qualifying
campaign in Valencia over the next fortnight has been brought into shape by
head coach Danny Kerry who thinks his squad is ready to perform well in the
women’s World league. The top three teams of the tournament will automatically
qualify for the Rio 2016. A majority of the squad have admitted that they are
now fit ever than before since they won silver at the last summer’s
Commonwealth Games.
They had a painful lesson at the world
cup where England finished 11th. Kerry noted sometimes players have tough time
to know what it is all about and to judge how much they need to train and
focus. The coach added people say road to success is hard and talent shines
through trials and they had that last summer which has energized them. He added
they were not much experienced at the Commonwealth Games but now they have got
good team spirit and understand how to tackle tough games. Great Britain’s
squad contains mainly all English where Emily Maguire is the only one of four
Scots who has made the centralized programme. Four changes have been made to
the squad which finished fifth at the Champions Trophy with Helen and Kate
Richardson-Walsh returning.
Time will prove if Helen’s wealth of
Experience at the back supported by captain Kate’s skill in the midfield can
compensate her vacation period over Christmas to cope with the demands of the
tournament. GB have a formidable trio with Alex Danson leading from front to
balance a youthful looking squad. The convoluted World League constitutes four
similar tournaments in three different venues for men and women over the next
month where 8 of 10 teams will qualify for the quarter-finals in Valencia. GB
will have to avoid bottom finish in a group to advance.
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