Wales Women Target Gold Coast After Historic Hockey World League Finish

Coach Kevin Johnson has urged Wales women to use their best World League finish as the launching pad to qualify for next year’s Commonwealth Games.

The squad finished fourth in Malaysia having created history when they qualified for Round 2 for the first time last September.

Now the target is the Commonwealths on Australia’s Gold Coast in April 2018.

Johnson said: “We will look back on this tournament proud that we have yet again been able to compete positively against higher ranked nations.

“As a result, our development as a group continues to grow at a fast rate.

“Alongside this however, the tournament has also made us aware of areas of our game we must improve on so that we can turn our competitiveness into more positive score lines in classification games.

“All in all we have got what we have wanted from the tournament and have earned valuable world ranking points on the way to a top four finish.”

The women’s focus will now switch to preparations for hosting the EuroHockey Championship Division II in Cardiff this August.

That tournament will be their final opportunity to collect world ranking points ahead of Commonwealth Games selection later in the year.

Wales finished second in their pool in Malaysia, bouncing back from defeat to Italy in the opening game to hammer Singapore then Thailand.

A 2-1 win over Kazakhstan in the quarter-finals saw them reach the semis where they lost 2-0 to eventual winners Ireland, ranked No 16 in the world.

A 3-1 defeat to Italy on Sunday saw Wales take fourth spot but pick up crucial rankings points.