Game, Set, Match

It is fair to say that the emotions of getting through the semi-final were still sky high this morning as the camp was still buzzing and the realisation that in one day we would be

... And stretch

facing Brazil for a place in the final was being felt by all. To manage our recovery and to ensure we were in top condition come tomorrow our schedule was left relatively free with a lot of downtime for us to relax in the best way we felt possible.

This morning was kicked off with a stretching and foam rolling session led by our Sports Scientist Luke. With no sports hall or room available we made the most of the beautiful Russian weather (today was thankfully a sunny day) and found a grassy space outside our apartment block to set up camp for our session.With weather like it was today I couldn’t think of anywhere better to be than outside, although with all of the mosquitos flying around much of the session was spent swatting them away.

Foam Rolling - the faces say it all

The first part of our session consisted of stretching, followed by the gruelling self-inflicted pain that is foam rolling. As painful as the process of rolling your muscles out over foam tubes can be, the end gain is always worth it and will aid our recovery ahead of tomorrow’s game. 

With some of our fellow Team GB athletes also competing in various quarter-finals today we wanted to lend our support and back them to victory; in the same way the Rugby 7s women’s and men’s teams came and cheered us on last night. The men’s football team weren’t competing until 8pm, which was when we had meetings arranged, so we opted to go and watched the Mixed Doubles competing in their quarter-final against Slovakia.

A beautiful day to enjoy some tennis

And wow wasn’t it quite some game. An exciting, tightly fought first set saw Team GB pinch it by winning the tie-break after the games finished 6-6. One more set and a place in the semi-final was theirs, but Slovakia didn’t give up and as they had in the first set, made the GB duo fight for every point taking this set all the way to tie-break again. Some cracking returns and hard fought points saw Team GB bounce back from being 5-0 down to winning 8-6 and clinching the second set. Game, Set, Match and a place in the semi-final was theirs. 

The winning Mixed Doubles Team

This is one of the (many) things I love about being part of a multi-sport event like the World University Games is that not only am I part of a cracking 20 player squad who are here to represent the Women’s Football but we are also part of a larger team, who are here to represent Team GB. Being able to go along to another event, whether it’s tennis or badminton or judo, and support athletes from our country is such a great feeling and one thing I will miss about Kazan once the Games are over. “Let’s Go GB, Let’s Go” The lads continued the great form of Team GB and also secured themselves a place in the semi-final overcoming Ukraine 1-0 where they will now face hosts Russia in the semi-final. The last few days of the tournament appear to be lining up to be a cracking one, not only for us but for many of our fellow Team GB athletes who are also striving for that gold medal.

Kerys, Myself and Aileen

With tomorrow’s game set to be our biggest one since arriving in Kazan we are feeling ready, positive and set to go out into battle. I am confident that every single player in our squad is prepared and set to rise up to the challenge that is the semi-final and we literally cannot wait to get stuck in. Bring on the Brazilians, another 90 minutes to go out and do what we do best!

Let's Go GB, Let's Go!