We’re all still recovering from the events of the weekend! In case you somehow missed it…the Irish Women’s Hockey team booked their spot in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in the MOST dramatic of ways.
They faced Canada in back-to-back matches on Saturday and Sunday. With neither team able to break the deadlock, Sunday night saw us all on the edge of our seats as we watched the penalties through our fingers – not naming names, but a number of Muckross heads at the stadium were even feeling quite nauseous…
The nausea only got worse as they went down in the penalties and had to fight to stay in it, before eventually forcing it to sudden death. As if our nerves weren’t completely destroyed already, the Canadians called a video referral on Ireland’s match-winning save after we’d started our celebrations… but it was a shot in the dark and we could all stop holding our breath – a hard thing to do for two whole nights!
Already we could see the impact of the match at training last night with aerials being chucked about! Though we might need a bit more practice before we break into the squad just yet…
From the whole club we’d like to wish our own player, Anna O’Flanagan, and all the team a massive congratulations on such mammoth achievement, one that’s been years in the making.
What an amazing time to be involved in hockey!