Bronze feels as good as gold for GB’s hockey

THE medal might not have been quite so shiny but it meant just as much. After everything this Great Britain team have been through over the last five years, bronze felt as good as gold. To know that, you only needed to witness the celebrations when the final whistle sounded on yesterday’s thrilling 4-3 win over India. On one half of the pitch, tearful team-mates raced towards each other to embrace in scenes remarkably reminiscent of Rio when they became Olympic champions for the first time.

On the other, goalkeeper Maddie Hinch dropped to her knees and was greeted by skipper Hollie Pearne-Webb, the two shootout heroes of 2016 sharing another moment to savour. The five years that have followed that famous win must have felt like a lifetime for many of these hockey history-makers. Coach and captain have changed, legends have retired and some, like Hinch (right), have battled demons. At one stage it looked like they might not even make it to Tokyo. But they did, and now hockey sticks are jolly again and Great Britain’s women have won medals at three successive Games. ‘This bronze feels just as good because there have been so many challenges,’ admitted PearneWebb. ‘Even a few months ago, Olympic bronze was only in our wildest dreams. But we deserve to be on that podium. ‘I can’t believe I am a double Olympic medallist. I am a very average person. It is crazy.’ And it was a crazy game which got them that medal, one that saw five goals in a spectacular second quarter. Team GB took the lead when Ellie Rayer’s cross was deflected in by India’s Deep Grace Ekka and a fine reverse-stick finish by Sarah Robertson doubled their advantage. But they then collapsed, conceding three times in four minutes — the first two scored by Gurjit Kaur from penalty corners and the third from Vandana Katariya. After a few choice words at halftime from their coach Mark Hager, which he later said were ‘not repeatable’, Team GB hit back through Pearne-Webb before Grace Balsdon grabbed the winner from a penalty corner 12 minutes from time. ‘We work super hard on our penalty corners so for that to pay off is a dream come true,’ said Balsdon, one of the nine players