Hannah Macleod has revealed the secret to Great Britain women reaching the Olympic hockey final to face the Netherlands.
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One marginal gain that no fewer than three of Britain’s track cycling rivals have employed is the use of see-through pockets to attach race numbers, which is slightly more aerodynamic than pinning them on with safety pins.
Great Britain responded with a penalty corner of their own three minutes later, Crista Cullen testing New Zealand goalkeeper Sally Rutherford with a sizzling drag flick.
“To fight for an Olympic medal is what gets us up every morning, let alone to be in a gold medal match”. We snubbed out any sniff New Zealand had.
“We were confident, we knew they (New Zealand) would just come running at us and they have some excellent ball carriers and we had a game plan just to stop that and then we play our game”.
But whatever happens, Britain’s women have already confirmed their best performance in Olympic hockey history.
The result gives the Dutch the chance to defend their Olympic title after they won the London 2012 gold with a 2-0 result over Argentina.
“We have worked really hard on our culture, trying to create a winning mentality, and we have a huge amount of attacking threat, which we have demonstrated through numerous scorers in this tournament”.
Following a largely uninspiring first half, Giselle Ansley put Britain ahead from a penalty corner before further efforts from Nicola White, on the rebound, and Danson saw India swept aside.
GB made it 3-0 on 52 minutes, Danson doubling her tally by converting a second penalty stroke after Lily Owsley had been fouled.
With a gold medal around her neck following a shootout victory after a dramatic 3-3 draw, Kate Richardson-Walsh confirmed she would retire from global hockey after 13 years as captain and two years after almost quitting the sport.
If the Dutch have learnt anything from last night’s semi-final it is that Team GB, under the captaincy of Kate Richardson-Walsh, will not be…
The Black Sticks did finish the quarter quarter strongly, but again a number of handy opportunities were not capitalised on and early in the final stanza Richardson-Walsh’s stroke left the Kiwis with an even bigger mountain to climb.
“The first five minutes we absolutely went at them”. But you can’t forget what’s got us here.
“But it’s been one game at a time – momentum, recovery, play and implement the tactics”.
“To win an Olympic medal with your wife standing next to you, taking the penalty stroke in the pressure moments, is so special and we will cherish this for the rest of our lives”. “That’s won us games here – concentrating for the entire 60 minutes and knowing what our roles are”.
“We’ve now gone unbeaten through an Olympic tournament, which is unreal”.
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“Four years ago, it was fantastic to get bronze, but we have come here to do better”.
