Anne Panter and her Great Britain women’s hockey team mates will look to further cement their place at the top of Pool A when they face Belgium at the Riverbank Arena this evening.
The team have made the perfect start to their quest for Olympic glory in London, winning both their opening matches against Japan and South Korea to put themselves in a good position to reach the knockout rounds.
Panter, who lives in Wellingborough, has featured for the team by coming off the substitutes’ bench in both matches, helping Team GB open with a 4-0 win over the Japanese in their first match of the competition on Sunday.
Tuesday’s encounter with the Koreans was much closer after they fought back from being 3-1 down to draw level before GB sealed a 5-3 victory thanks to two goals in two minutes from Georgi Twigg and Chloe Rogers.
“In terms of those qualities you look for from a high-performing team I was absolutely delighted,” said coach Danny Kerry. “It is the Olympic Games and you have performances like that but it is how you come out of them that is the thing.
“Everyone knows Korea are serious semi-final candidates and they are one of the teams coaches talk about as they have a lot of threats.
“I was delighted with the way we tried to deal with some of those threats. As I get older I realise it is never going to be perfect for 70 minutes – as much as I hope it one day might be – and what it comes down to is personal qualities.”
Tonight’s opponents Belgium have yet to register a win in the tournament, and while victory would see GB take a step closer to a semi-final spot it would virtually confirm the Belgians’ elimination from medal contention.
So far they have lost 3-0 to the Netherlands and drew 0-0 with China – two teams that the British women still have to face and both of whom are expected to be among the main contenders for a semi-final place.
