TOKYO FEARS FOR HOCKEY CHAMPIONS

GREAT BRITAIN’S Olympic hockey champions are facing the devastating prospect that they may not qualify for Tokyo. Despite producing one of the most memorable moments of the Rio Olympics, the women do not get an automatic spot and have struggled for form under their new coach, Australian Mark Hager. In the last fortnight they have lost twice to Japan, while in the new FIH Pro League earlier this year they had just three wins from 16 matches. Suzy Petty, who joined the squad after Rio 2016, said her main concern was not securing qualification at one of the two possible opportunities this year. She said: ‘It has been tough, we’ve had our challenges and we have had a change of coach, but with a year to go we know what we need to do. ‘We haven’t had the best results over the last six months. But we now know what the one per cent we need to change is. ‘We are going for the gold, but we know it is going to be really tough and we have a lot of work to do.’ The team can secure qualification either by England winning next month’s EuroChampionships in Belgium or Great Britain winning on aggregate at a two-match qualifying event at the end of the year. But when asked what her biggest fear was with a year to go until Tokyo, 27-year-old Petty said: ‘We aren’t even speaking about Tokyo at the moment. ‘It is the Europeans and if we don’t win that then it is the Olympic qualifiers. Then we can talk about it.’ Key players have retired since Rio, while long-term coach Danny Kerry moved over to look after the GB men’s team. UK Sport awarded an additional £1million of funding to GB Hockey after Rio, meaning more central contracts could be funded for men and women. But if they fail to qualify or perform badly at Tokyo, future funding would be under threat.