GB Women finish World Championship campaign on a high
GREAT Britain Women beat Greece 25-23 in the final match of their World Championship Qualifying Tournament in Holland on Sunday to cap a superb week for the squad. The team had made no secret of their ambition to beat Greece in the event, but the tournament was more successful than they thought after strong performances against top nations earlier in the event.
“It has been a superb week,” said head coach Jesper Holmris. “Obviously it’s great to beat Greece, but also the first three games we did very well against Lithuania, Turkey, and Holland as well. “We have learned a lot out here, but most importantly we’re much closer to the next level of nations than we previously thought. We can now move on and prepare for the European Championship qualifiers next year.”
Trailing 10-11 at half time, GB battled back to win narrowly against Greece. Holly Lam-Moores top-scored with six, while Lynn McCafferty scored five and Yvette Frings and Britt Goodwin scored four each, Sophia Cannon three, Jeanette Anderson two and Lynn Byl one.
Goalkeeper Sarah Hargreaves capped a superb tournament with a world-class shot save ratio of 42 per cent. Top scorer against Greece - Holly Lam-Moores After three hard matches in a row earlier in the tournament against the strongest nations, GB rested some players for the clash with the Czech Republic in preparation for the match against Greece. While they lost 17-34 to Czech Republic, key players were refreshed for the Greece match and they achieved their target of a win in their final match.
“It was the perfect finish to a fantastic week,” added Holmris. “I think we’ve done much better than we expected.
It has been a great experience to play five games in six days, and the players have realised how hard it is to do that, so we’ve got to get fitter to cope with that.”
