Turkish delight for Ruth at euro event
Scotland under-21 side clinch top tier promotion
Perth hockey player Ruth Blaikie turned on the style to help Scotland clinch U21 Women’s EuroHockey Championship II gold.
It was a case of Turkish delight for the young Scots’ squad whose success in the city of Alanya sees them jump up to Europe’s top tier.
The gold medal match proved to be an interesting encounter against an Italian side who managed to seize an early advantage.
But Scotland bounced back when Cat Booth found the net with a penalty corner before Lunjika Nyirenda scored from close range for 2-1.
And then Blaikie, a former Perth High student, was in the right place at the right time to roll the ball home to engineer breathing space.
Extra sparkle was added to the victory when the Scots netted a fourth courtesy of a neat finish by Nyirenda, her second of the game.
For Blaikie, the achievement of bumping up to A-Division is a special one and will provide the platform to compete against the best.
“I feel happy that our hard work paid off and we were able to reach our goal of promotion,” Blaikie explained to the Perthshire Advertiser. Ruth impressed with the Scotland under-21 squad and is now looking forward to continuing her development in the sport
“I’m very excited to have the chance to play against the top tier teams for the next two years.
“Hopefully in two years’ time we can do our best to remain in A division.
“We’ve never really had any exposure to the top teams, except for England, so it will be motivating for us to see the level we aspire to be at.”
The determined manner of the Scots’ EuroHockey Championship II performance earned plaudits from
head coach Neil Menzies.
And Blaikie added: “All the teams were a closely matched standard but each team having very different styles of play.
“Our group, especially, had very evenly matched teams so the games were very competitive.
“In the final against Italy we went 1-0 down early on. It was the first time we had been behind in the tournament.
“But it gave us the drive to work even harder because we knew that we were capable of winning.
“We focused on ourselves and after getting the equaliser, the game shifted in our favour.
“We stuck to our tactics and processes and the goals started to come. Our performance in the final showed our work rate and attitude.
“We continued to work for each other and were still determined on getting more goals rather than sitting off and dropping the intensity.
“Everyone was buzzing. We had to catch our flight home that night so we couldn’t celebrate to the fullest.
“But we went out for tea after winning the promotion match with the whole team and all our friends and family, which was fun.”
Another flight awaits Blaikie as she prepares to hot-foot across to the Netherlands after joining AMVJ, based near Amsterdam. That’s an experience she is looking forward to.
“It was quite difficult going about finding a team but I sent an email around and AMVJ replied and were very enthusiastic,” said Blaikie.
“They were keen to see if I would fit their team. I went over to Amsterdam to trial and then they offered me a place.
“The players and coaches were so welcoming and friendly which made it an easy decision.”