Great Britain’s women, along with 15 other teams are drinking in the last chance saloon in terms of Olympic Qualifying. However, despite the high stakes of the qualifying tournament, which starts this Saturday morning, Anna Toman is keen to embrace the ‘privilege of pressure.’
“These matches are a lot more pressurised than the likes of the Pro League. But I also think pressure is a privilege because I think where we’re expected to qualify out of these looking at the group.”
“We’re the second highest ranked team here between the two pools. So I think for us it’s quite a nice feeling because we haven’t really gone into a tournament in the last few years, being one of the favourites to come out of it. Yes, obviously there’s a big elephant in the room of what we have to do, but that’s the nature of our game. Like I said, I think pressure is a privilege and we have to bring it on and not be scared of it.”
Toman and her Great Britain team mates will line up against Canada in their first pool match, before taking on hosts Spain and then Malaysia. All being well they will play in the semi-finals on Thursday 18 January. A top three finish in the tournament will book their ticket to the Paris Olympics.
The opener against Canada brings about a reunion for Great Britain with former coach Danny Kerry and former captain Kate Richardson-Walsh – the duo who presided over the gold medal at Rio 2016, forming part of Canada’s coaching staff. Whilst I fish around for some narrative, Toman shuts that sort of talk down immediately.
“There’s no added spice for us because actually in our team there is only a small amount of us that have played with them or been coached by them.“
“Obviously they’re going to know a lot about us as a team and as individuals, and we know Danny’s strengths as being a tactician. So we know that they’ll do their research on us but as a team, we’re trying not to get to sucked into that because at the end of the day, they are who they are, but they are the coaches and they’re not the ones on the pitch.”
Great Britain come into the tournament off the back of a difficult start to their FIH Pro league campaign, where a trip to Argentina yielded heavy defeats by Netherlands and a draw and a defeat by Argentina. Playing the two best sides in women’s hockey, Toman believes will prove to be good preparation for the team:
“I know we didn’t have all the best results, but a big thing for us going out there was to try and play our game and play the way we want to and we think we really achieved that and that gave us a lot of confidence coming into these games.”
“It’s going to be a completely different challenge playing against teams with very different rankings, but I think we’re in a really good place and know our identity and how we want to play, that’s really important for us. It’s going to be a completely new challenge, but something that we’re really excited for and definitely ready.”
Undoubtedly, the likes of Lily Owsley and Hannah French will play important roles in Great Britain’s attempts to unlock the opposition defences. However when I ask Toman about which players to watch out for, her answers differ from those.
“Sabbie Heesh is my first one. In Argentina, she stepped up massively. Obviously, she had extremely big shoes to fill taking over from Maddie Hinch. I think what she’s realised is she’s not Maddie. She’s going to do it her own way. And that’s what we witnessed in Argentina. She just did things her way and she really found her feet. She also found her confidence, she had this aura about her on and off the pitch. It was just amazing to see.”
“My other one to watch is going to be Sophie Hamilton. I think she’s got a huge amount of potential that we really need to help get out of her as a team.”
“She’s hugely talented in the midfield line and can create so much for us and she’s also a very intelligent player. So I think as a team we really need to help her achieve what I believe she can.”
All of Great Britain’s matches, men’s and women’s, will be streamed live on the BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport website and app. Matches will also be available to watch on catch up on the BBC iPlayer.
Let’s hope come next weekend, Toman and her teammates have embraced the pressure and are toasting their successful qualification for Paris.
Fixtures
GB Women
All times are GMT
Saturday 13 January – GB v Canada 08:30
Sunday 14 January – Spain v GB 10:45
Tuesday 16 January – GB v Malaysia 13:15
Thursday 18 January – Semi-finals 11:30 and 14:30
Saturday 20 January – Final 17:00; third-place play-off 14:30
The Top of the D 