More glory wanted as MBE caps ‘dream year’

Hockey

After reluctantly coming to the end of a ‘dream year’, golden girl Susannah Townsend has set her sights on world domination and securing more Olympic glory at Tokyo 2020.

The 27-year-old, who grew up in Egerton, was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours this week after helping GB’s women to a gold medal in a dramatic Rio final back in August.

The Canterbury star said: “Everyone’s celebrating coming into 2017 but for me I don’t want to say goodbye to 2016.

“It’s been almost a dream year. I remember this time last year thinking ‘wow it’s a massive year coming up, what can we achieve?’

“Well, we have achieved almost everything there is out there to achieve, so for me it’s been an incredible year and the MBE tops it off.”

Townsend revealed her hunger for more glory on the biggest stage and already has 2020 vision.

She said: “Everyone saw back home, nothing really went wrong in Rio. To bring home a gold, in the pinnacle of our sport... hopefully we can go on and emulate it in four years.

“You don’t want to just win one Olympic Games gold medal, you want to go on and become a dominant force in world hockey.

“We’re No.2 in the world now and certainly don’t want to slip from that. We want to continue to progress and get that No.1 spot. To consistently be No.1 in the world is our aim.”

Townsend – going through rehabilitation after knee surgery in October – almost accidently missed out on her date at Buckingham Palace.

She said: “I’ve moved house and I didn’t change my address in time so my old housemate messaged me and said ‘there’s a really official looking letter here with Her Majesty’s something...do you want me to open it?’

“I said ‘please open it’ then I had to go round and collect it. I could have definitely missed it and not replied and not been on the list – thankfully I did, otherwise I would have been in trouble.”