PUBLISHED 08 September 2019
Mollie, AKS hockey star , has had a busy and successful summer celebrating both her academic and hockey achievements.
As a member of the England U18 Hockey squad Mollie travelled to Eindhoven in Holland to compete in the European 6 Nations Tournament. Playing against the top U18 sides in Europe Mollie played her part in the team achieving some superb results and finishing in third spot behind the strong Dutch and German sides.
The first game saw them defeat Ireland 2 – 0 followed by a superb win against Spain 3 – 0. The third game saw the team up against the top side in Holland, who had beaten them twice at Easter, and they rose superbly to the challenge to earn a hard fought 2 – 2 draw. A defeat to Germany 1 – 3 saw the team go in to the last game against Belgium needing a win to clinch runners-up spot. Despite dominating the game and playing some superb hockey the team could not get the winning goal and had to settle for a 1 – 1 draw and so third place overall.
On her return home Mollie had further cause for celebration when she received her A Level results. Having had to juggle training, attending England Camps and travelling home and abroad to play for her country with her academic studies Mollie was thrilled to gain the fantastic grades of A, B & B which earnt her a place at her first choice University in Nottingham to continue her studies in Biochemistry and Genetics alongside her hockey.
Mollie had even more reason to celebrate a few days ago as following an assessment camp at the end of August Mollie has been selected to be a member of the Great Britain Elite Development programme ( GB EDP ). Launched last season the GB EDP is part of a strategic objective during the Tokyo 2020 cycle to accelerate the development of future medal winning Olympians. While not age categorised the EDP has been designed for athletes aged between 19 – 23 who may have the potential to become Olympic medallists. This is a fantastic achievement as Mollie will be one of the youngest members of the programme but she will no doubt learn a great deal from working alongside more experienced players and current Senior Internationals and hopefully will enable her to achieve her own ambition of playing Senior International Hockey in the years ahead.
We wish Mollie every success both in her studies and on the hockey scene and hope to see her back at AKS playing for OAKS in the annual hockey match against the school 1st XI next year.