Great Britain’s men get their Olympic qualifying campaign up and running on Monday (15th) as they take on Pakistan and skipper David Ames is hoping to use the fuel from past disappointments to drive his side to the Olympics in Paris.
Playing as England in the EuroHockey Championships in the summer, Ames and a number of the players who will line up for Great Britain in this qualifying tournament suffered heartbreak as they were narrowly denied the gold medal by the Netherlands.
“To be honest there’s a little bit more bite than there probably ever has been to show we’re that close to being a really successful team that continues to stand on podiums and continues to try and win medals. I think the summer demonstrated that.“
“It’s the first time in 14 years that we’ve managed to reach a major final and that was a big tick box for us that’s going to stand us in good stead, hopefully to get through next week and then building towards the summer and Paris, if we can get there.” says the Great Britain captain.
Great Britain, by Ames’ own admission have not done themselves justice at the last two Olympics – a feeling he is determined to put right. And with a crop of exciting young players gaining more and more experience as well as the “handbrake off” style of play Coach Paul Revington has implemented, this team seems well placed to do that, provided they can get through the qualifiers this week.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to have been to have been to the last two Olympics, maybe we haven’t done quite as well as what we would have liked. So maybe there’s a couple of us who feel that, you know, we want to go again and make sure we do ourselves justice.
“Can we get to the medal rounds? That’s a big incentive for us at the minute. But ultimately it’s about the youngsters who want to experience that opportunity. That’s what excites me and that’s what drives me to make sure that we get over the line. There’s a lot of guys who have come into our squad and put us on the map, developed our style of hockey in a way that I didn’t think was possible, and that’s massively down to the coaching staff as well.”
“So in terms of the excitement of this group and what it can do style wise from our playing philosophy, that excites me about going to Paris. And so hopefully for these younger guys who haven’t been, they get to experience something that will live long in the memory.”
Great Britain’s attacking style has at times been compared to the “Bazball” approach adopted by the England cricket team, and with Pakistan and Malaysia, two of their pool opponents expected to lean on their own flair and skill in attack, it could make for some very entertaining matches. The three opponents will be quite different in their game plans to the teams Great Britain usually face, however Ames is keen to point out that they will be ready for whatever is thrown at them.
“We’ve been studying our homework to try and replicate what they’re doing. But as you probably well know, we’re always very much focused on ourselves. The process of what we want to do, what we want to see, how we how we want to go about our game is pretty much first and foremost in our thoughts. Then we try to pick certain strengths and weaknesses that we think we can take away from those guys.”
“It’s going to be challenging. I think the rankings go out the window in these types of tournaments. You know, an Olympic qualifier the rankings to me just don’t matter. Everybody’s fighting for the one thing.”
Ames and his team mates begin their fight for that all important ticket to Paris on Monday 15th January at 1645, when they face Pakistan. Their next game is Tuesday 16 January vs Malaysia also at 16:45 and they round off their pool matches against China on Thursday 18 January at 1430. All matches are available on the BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website and App.
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