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Leah Wilkinson will win her 150th cap when she leads the Welsh Women’s team into the Hockey Open Series in Lithuania this week.
The Holcombe midfielder is in her 14th year in the Welsh team, having made her debut in Ireland in 2004, and has played at three Commonwealth Games, leading Wales at the Gold Coast earlier this year.
But now she is hoping to use her experience to blood a new group of players as the Welsh team looks to build for the future in Vilnius.
Five players picked up their first caps in the recent series win in Poland and they will be charged with adding new impetus into the Welsh set-up as the team seeks to improve on its current world ranking of 26th.
“I think it’s a really exciting time for Welsh hockey with the youngsters coming in. I’ve played for the programme for perhaps 13-14 years and you always get these shifts, especially after the Commonwealth Games,” said Wilkinson.
“For many, going to the Commonwealth Games feels like the Olympic Games, and you always get players moving away from the programme and moving on to different things. Now we’ve got another evolution in our team.”
The Vilnius event is a five-nation, round-robin tournament that takes place between 21-26 August. Wales will face Turkey, Ukraine, Czech Republic and Lithuania, with the top three teams moving forward to the next phase in the summer of 2019.
As the top-ranked team, Czech Republic (19th) will be favourites to take top spot with the vastly experienced pair of Jindriska Reichlova and skipper Tereza Mejzlikova leading the way.
Wales are the second highest ranked team with the Ukraine one place behind them in 27th, the Turks ranked 33rd and the host nation 36th.
Ukraine are led by Yulia Vorushylo, who can top Wilkinson’s cap tally with 209 to her name so far. Their indoor team have tasted high-level international competition already in 2018 as they finished fourth at the Indoor World Cup in Berlin.
“After a rigorous training phase in the last two months, which have included match series against both South Africa and Poland, we are all looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead in Lithuania,” said Wales head coach, Kevin Johnson.
“I am particularly pleased to see a number of our younger players step up with the opportunities they have had in this phase. It has been great to see how quickly they have connected with both our established player group and the principles of play we are trying to deliver.”
Johnson headed to Vilnius with only nine of the 18 players who represented Wales on the Gold Coast in April, but remains confident his new-look squad can deliver positive performances in Lithuania and move onto the next phase.
Welsh Women’s Hockey Squad
Beth Bingham (Holcombe), Emma Brierley (Colwyn Bay), Amy Burton (Swansea), Hannah Cozens (Buckingham), Cari Davies (Ardudwy), Lauren Dunn (Swansea), Izzie Howell (Neston), Xenna Hughes (East Grinstead), Caro Hulme (Beeston), Ella Jackson (Buckingham), Danni Jordan (Royal Leopold, Belgium), Eloise Laity (Buckingham), Phoebe Richards (Buckingham), Jess Roe (Beeston), Emily Rowlands (Surbition), Sarah-Jayne Thorburn (Swansea), Joanne Westwood (Holcombe), Leah Wilkinson (Holcombe, captain)
