Scotland women's hockey team fully prepared to face big challenges ahead at FIH Champions Challenge
The Scottish women hockey team is ready for the upcoming FIH (International Hockey Federation) Champions Challenge tournament, which is going to be played in Dublin, Ireland from June 18 to June 26.
Eight teams, divided into two pools, will be up against each other for the title and these include South Africa, Japan, USA and Scotland in pool A while Spain, India, Ireland and Azerbaijan are in pool B.
The World Number 9, Japan, will start their campaign as favourite in the pool A, where their real test will be against South Africa. The Japanese side was remained at the third place behind New Zealand and South Africa in the 2009 Champions Challenge
tournament, which was held in Cape Town, the capital city of South Africa.
The head coach of Ireland women’s hockey team, Gordon Shepherd, is quite aware of the challenge that they are going to have, so he selected a sound and seasoned team for the tournament. He told that no game will be easy for the team as there will be
other top teams of the world, who are far better than them.
“To finish in the top six at the Champions Challenge will be our target and that would be a really positive result for us given that we are the lowest ranked team at the tournament. The teams we will face are of high calibre at international level
but we will go out to win every game and compete with our opponents in each match,” Gordon Shepherd, the head coach, stated about the team selection and their goals in the tournament.
“We ran South Africa close in the Commonwealth Games last year, and we have become stronger with key players returning to the squad and in good form,” he further stated.
Gordon Shepherd, the head coach of the Scottish team, further stated that playing in such a big tournament like Champions Challenge will be of a great help and support for his team and surely it will provide great level of international experience
to the players.
Some of the experienced and key Scottish team members have made their comeback that will contribute to their strength in the tournament. Laura Bartlett has recovered from her knee injury and will now strengthen the forward line of the team, while the
inclusion of talented Vikki Bunce will also be a morale booster for the team.
The Scottish women team for the Champions Challenge tournament:
Linda Clement (captain), Abi Walker, Laura Bartlett, Kat Cameron Nikki Kidd, Louise Baxter, Alison Bell, Catriona Ralph, Alisa Wylie, Amy Gibson, Leigh Fawcett, Sam Judge, Vikki Bunce, Morag McLellan, Emily Maguire, Holly Cram, Becky Ward and Kareena
Marshall.
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