Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Surprise visit by siblings gives Susie Olympic boost
An Olympic gold medallist from Canterbury was spurred on to victory in Rio by a surprise visit from her siblings.
Susannah Townsend is a member of the triumphant Great Britain’s women’s hockey team who beat the Netherlands in a nailbiting penalty shootout to make history.
Known as Susie to family and friends, the 27-year-old has been a member of the city hockey club at Polo Farm since she was 12 – and is a star of Canterbury Ladies.
This week she returns home with other Team GB medallists having helped the nation achieve astonishing Olympics success.
She tells the Gazette that “psychologically we set ourselves up to win” when they scored the vital equaliser just before time.
“Tactically we knew what we were going to do,” she said. “We knew how good Holland are. But we were confident that when we got our chances we would take them.”
Susie says that the team took each match at a time, and tried to ignore distractions.
“We were lucky that they gave us phones with Rio numbers. We handed out the number to family and a few friends.
“But once we got past the quarters I have to admit I did look at my normal phone. I’m ashamed to say I’ve not yet got round to returning a lot of messages!”
Unbeknown to Susie, her mum Lesley made a snap decision to fly Susie’s sister and brother out to Rio to urge their sister to victory.
Mrs Townsend, husband Mark and Susie’s younger brothers, Billy and Harry, were already in Brazil.
“It was the quarter final, the match against Spain. We knew Great Britain could beat them, but it was nerve-wracking,” she said.
Mrs Townsend says the quarter final victory sealed the decision to fly out Susie’s sister Vicky and twin-brother Michael, too.
“I said ‘pack your bags’ – within eight hours they were at Heathrow!” she said.
“I didn’t tell Susie or my husband. It came to Wednesday, semi-final day. Mark and the boys went to the watch the other semi final.
“I made the decision to tell Susie so she wouldn’t get a shock. She said ‘now that I know they’re here I know we’ll win’.”
A 3-0 defeat of New Zealand left GB within touching distance of ultimate glory – and facing the Netherlands.
Mrs Townsend said: “I thought we’ll be happy with a silver in any event. But then we were get- ting the train to the match and all these Dutch fans got on, dressed in orange.
“They were loud, boisterous, and I thought ‘no, we’ve got to do this’.”
The eventful final will go down in Olympics history as a nailbiter.
With a late equalizer from 3-2 down, GB eventually won on penalties thanks in no small part to the heroics of keeper Maddie Hinch.
“That match had everything – it had a last minute goal, people sent off, injuries, then a penalty shoot-out,” Mrs Townsend said.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet, to be honest.”
Susie was due to be reunited with her family this week following a whirlwind of media interviews and TV appearances.
“I’ll take a rest for a while of course. But from October, November, we’ll have Tokyo in our sights.”