Canterbury’s SUSANNAH TOWNSEND reflects on Great Britain’s qualification for the 2016 Olympics

Golden girls raring for Rio

The overriding feeling having just qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympics is relief! (Great Britain won gold in the World League final with a 2-1 win over China to secure Olympic qualification). We have been training so hard and have been so focused, but there are always nerves going into such an important tournament. We’re delighted to have won gold in Valencia. We went there with the clear goal of qualifying for Rio, so to win all seven games and concede only two goals was amazing! The long-term goal is success in Rio, but before that we’ve got lots of other tournaments to focus on. While it was nerve-racking knowing Olympic qualification was at stake, we were prepared for the tournament, so while we felt the pressure, it didn’t affect our performances. It is nice to see all our hard work paying off and getting the results we’ve worked for. We have been through a lot as a squad and the strength within our team makes us a force to be reckoned with as we build up to Rio. Our game finished quite late, so there weren’t any wild parties after. We went for a meal, which lasted until about 1am, and then we had to get up at 6am to get to the airport to come home, so we were all well behaved! It’s been such a busy six months that we were all so happy to have qualified and celebrating together was the perfect evening. We’ve now got 10 days to ourselves, which is lovely. When we first got back, we had two days back at Bisham Abbey, where we had yoga, individual meetings with the strength and conditioning coaches and the physio and a debrief. I’m now heading off to Dubai and Oman for a holiday and we’re back training on July 6, when we will be focused on the Europeans in August. Having a change of scenery will be great and I’ll come back refreshed and ready for the next challenge.

Investec, the specialist bank and asset manager, supports women’s hockey from grass-roots level through to the national team: investec.co.uk/hockey or on Twitter

The Canterbury Back To Hockey squad, who drew 3-3 with the Friars in their opening game

Susannah Townsend: holiday