Team GB had a summer of history being made in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. One notable performance was the unexpected, and first ever, gold medal in the Women's Hockey event in a dramatic final, won on penalties, against the world number one Dutch side who were reigning world champions. Aside from this incredible achievement, the Men's team had a disappointing campaign, finishing second from bottom in their pool and, accordingly, not reaching any further stage in the competition.
Following from this, there have been many changes in the squad including the welcoming of some young new players into the framework, one of whom I had the great pleasure of being able to question. I had the opportunity to ask Jonty Griffiths about his hockey and the team's chances of improvement for the fast approaching London Men's Hockey World League in June at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (tickets available here:http://www.englandhockey.co.uk/page.asp?section=2149§ionTitle=Buy+Tickets).
Q: How would you describe the feeling of being picked/contracted for the GB men's hockey squad?
A: It's an honour to be able to play for the senior GB team. It's something you always dream of achieving when coming up through the age groups. It's a very surreal experience.
Q: You're currently out in Malaysia in preparation for the World League. What do you think will be the squad's main challenge in preparing for this event?
A: The main challenge will be gelling as quickly as we can for the tournament. It's learning how each other play and what traits players have and how best to utilise these.
Q: Who do you think will be the toughest team to beat? Why?
A: The toughest team will be Australia at the moment I think, due to the intensity they place on you right from the start.
Q: What are your hopes for your future hockey career?
A: As soon as I finish university I want to get fully centralised (5 days a week) as quickly as possible. The aims for tournaments are to try and make the commonwealth games and ultimately play in an Olympic Games.
It is no surprise that Griffiths wants to put his university hockey behind him following Loughborough Students only winning one point out of their eighteen league games and consequential automatic relegation from the Premier League. He is definitely keeping his cards close to his chest concerning his club hockey for next year but at the moments his concerns seem to closely focused on bettering himself technically and accomplishing as much as possible with the senior squad.
Their warm-up campaign in Malaysia has gotten off to a strong start, drawing with an unsurprisingly difficult to beat Indian side 2-2 and winning against Japan 5-3, with Griffiths assisting one of the goals. It is clear that Griffiths has a lengthy and prestigious career ahead of him and hopefully, he will be able to fulfil his goal of representing his country at a future Olympic Games.
Christian Wilkinson, Whitgift School
