GB ‘heartbroken’ after Olympics near miss

The Great Britain women’s softball team were left “heartbroken” after falling agonisingly short of an unexpected first Olympic Games appearance at Tokyo 2020.

Facing Italy in the Europe/Africa Olympic qualifier tournament in Utrecht, Holland, yesterday, Great Britain were unable to maintain the unbeaten form that had taken them to what equated to a straight shoot-out match for the Games.

Greta Cecchetti did the main damage, pitching a shutout game with 13 strikeouts and only two hits allowed, as Italy, ranked world No9, three places above Great Britain, triumphed 5-0.

Yet in truth the fact the British team were even in a position to play off to punch their ticket to Tokyo, where both women’s softball and baseball will make first Olympic appearances since 2008, was remarkable in itself.

Approximately 20,000 people in the UK play softball – a modified form of baseball played on a smaller field with a larger, softer ball – with the majority of the British team based in America. Softball received only £62,500 financial support from UK Sport’s Aspiration Fund this year. Players have previously had to pay their own way, balancing international duties with jobs and studies.

“We are incredibly disappointed, the players are heartbroken,” head coach Rachael Watkeys, a former British player who won European silver and bronze in 2009 and 2011, told The Sunday Telegraph.

“At the same time we are incredibly proud because not many people thought we could do this and get this far. We’ve proven a point.

“It’s back to square one now in terms of funding, back to family and friends’ support, donations from really generous people. But, like I said, I’m really hopeful that we’ve set the world on notice, it can have a boost for the sport and some more funding will come.

“There are various versions of this game. Any growth we can get, if we can get it into schools, finding variety a bit like cricket have managed to do in terms of speeding up the game using smaller facilities – anything like that will be fantastic for us.”

Finishing inside the top six, with a bronze medal, at the recent European Championships gave Great Britain the opportunity to battle for a Tokyo spot.

Defeat yesterday, however, was compounded by the fact that the Paris 2024 Olympic Games committee voted not to include softball and baseball among their additional sports. It is likely that organisers of the Los Angeles Games, however, where the two sports are popular, will put them both back on the programme four years later.

That would still mean another nineyear wait until Britain could finally make their softball bow, but Basingstoke-born pitcher Georgina Corrick remains hopeful recent progress will not be in vain.

“The break is daunting but we had quite a young team this year,” said the 20-year-old, who is studying at the University of South Florida. “We were playing against teams like Italy and the Dutch who were women in their 30s, in their physical peak.

“In eight years we would like to make a run again. We’d have a similar number of girls from this year who had matured.

“Everyone was backing us this week. To see so many people coming out of the woodwork and seeing this is a sport that inspires people is amazing. Softball is more than a sport, it’s a unifier.” It was not quite a winning debut but Castleford Tigers teenager Hollie Dodd still claimed a slice of history as the youngest person – male or female – to ever play in a Challenge Cup final.

The rising star only turned 16, which is the eligible age to play, on Friday but was thrown straight into the action as Tigers took on Leeds Rhinos at the University of Bolton Stadium.

Ultimately it was Leeds who retained their title with player of the match Courtney Hill – the 32-year-old who formerly played Australian Big Bash cricket alongside the tennis world No1 and French Open champion Ashleigh Barty at Brisbane Heat – running in the winning try just before the hour mark.

But the performance of Dodd, a multiple national dancing champion before switching to rugby league, caught the eye. Normally a centre, she has been training with the team for the last few months in anticipation of her debut, with Lindsay Anfield, the Castleford coach, opting to introduce her on the wing.

“Wing was a good place for her to start and Leeds identified that – they kicked to her a few times and got a bit