Sutton Coldfield's Laura Unsworth becomes most-decorated GB hockey star
Sutton's Laura Unsworth was the pride of Team GB as she helped wrap up Tokyo women’s hockey bronze in and with it a third Olympic medal as Great Britain’s women beat India, writes Paul Eddison.
Unsworth helped Britain beat India in a 4-3 thriller to claim bronze and keep their proud place on the women's hockey podium.
Unsworth, 33, became the first British male or female hockey player to capture three Olympic medals – bronze in London and Tokyo, and gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“To be honest, it probably is up there with the Rio gold medal,” she said. “The things we have had to overcome as a team, people don’t know about. As a squad, we stuck together. We have been resilient – we fight.
“You don’t really think of that when you are an athlete (three medals in successive Games).
“If someone told me when I first started playing hockey when I was 11 that I would win three Olympic medals, I would have just looked at them and said: ‘you what’?”
It is an historic achievement for the women’s hockey team, the first team sport in more than a century to win medals at three consecutive Games.
But they did not do it the easy way despite a strong start. Goals from Ellie Rayer, turned in by India defender Deep Grace Ekka, and Sarah Robertson had allowed them to open a 2-0 lead, but India fought back with three goals in just four minutes. Navneet Kaur scored twice in quick succession from penalty corners before Vandana Katariya put India in front just before half-time.
GB looked shell-shocked, but strong words from coach Mark Hager had their effect and in the second half they turned it around with a rare goal from skipper Hollie Pearne-Webb, followed by Grace Balsdon’s winner.
And after everything the team has been through, it was a mixture of elation and relief for the entire team.
Balsdon added: “We're extremely, extremely happy. We've worked incredibly hard since coming back from time off during the pandemic. That hard work, all the heat chambers work we did before coming here, being together every day.
“You can see how much it means to us and how much we wanted it for each other. It's an unbelievable feeling and a slight relief that all that hard work has paid off. We've managed to get a medal and it's an incredible feeling.”
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