Borders-born Sarah Robertson, a former Edinburgh University player, Amy Costello from Edinburgh and Dundonian Charlotte Watson have been joined in the Great Britain women’s hockey squad by Jen Eadie (pictured, left).
She targeted a place in the Great Britain squad and now she is there. Stage one achieved.
Now, the Glaswegian has re-focused towards claiming a slot in the Great Britain squad for the Olympics in Paris in 2024.
The Clydesdale Western star is under no illusions. It will take a massive effort on her behalf, but she has belief and valuable international experienced on her side.
After all, the former Hutchesons’ Grammar School pupil has played 70 internationals for Scotland.
The 26-year-old is now a full-time athlete and has had to re-locate. She is now living near London and is currently looking for another club as travelling home to play for Glasgow Western every weekend during the season would be a massive physical drain.
Eadie is also set to spend time abroad. Great Britain are due to jet to Spain for warm weather training in the next few days and there are training games to fit in against quality, international opposition. Belgium are their opponents soon and they are ranked No 7 in the world.
The public health graduate is one of eight newcomers to the national women’s squad and she admitted: “This is a major step forward for me.
“I have targeted playing for Great Britain and now I’m in the squad as a full-time athlete.
“It’s a big change but one I am looking forward to immensely. The opportunity to play against top countries like Belgium will be invaluable, but I know there is a lot of hard work to do if I want to progress to the next stage.”
Her selection is reward for bouncing back from injury to play on the international stage.
Of course, she has other goals. Scotland have two big dates this summer, the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham at the end of July and the European qualifiers in Dunkirk, France, at the end of August, both key tournaments for the Tartan Hearts who sit at No 17 in the world rankings, their highest rating for some years.
Eadie will, by then, have enjoyed several months of training with Britain’s top female hockey players to develop here game further.
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