A tearful Lily Owsley felt nothing but pride after Team GB’s Olympic hockey campaign ended at the quarter-final stage.

The 29-year-old from Bristol was part of the team beaten 3-1 by the Netherlands as the reigning champions progressed to the last four.

Owsley has returned from her previous two Olympics with medals and though she was unable to replicate those feats, she hailed her side’s battling qualities.

“I feel so proud of the team,” she said. “We fought so hard and we were closer than anyone thought we were going to be.

“Pretty much everyone in the world had written us off before that game and we earned a hell of a lot of respect from the way we turned up, fought and held the best team in the world to a close fight.

“We competed and at the end of the day, some of their class shone through. We were in the fight and it gives me a lot of pride in our strength and character.”

David Ralph’s side were huge underdogs coming into the last-eight clash and the signs looked ominous when they fell behind inside 50 seconds as Netherlands skipper Xan de Waard fired into the bottom corner.

But the Dutch did not have it all their own way as GB stuck to their task and they found an equaliser when Hannah French fired home a loose ball after Amy Costello’s shot had been blocked from a penalty corner.

Netherlands restored their advantage in the dying moments of the first half, Luna Noa Fokke converting after Jansen’s strike was saved by Miriam Pritchard.

Fokke then made the game safe within a minute of the start of the final quarter, converting the rebound following another save by Pritchard.

“We knew we had to keep it tight so when they score in the first minute, that hurts,” added Owsley, one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme.

“We just had to keep it tight and not let them open the floodgates. We did that and at 2-1, I truly believed we were going to get it back.

“The third goal hit us hard but until the last two minutes, I had so much belief we could come back.

“We’ve had some inconsistent performances across the cycle and some of our learnings came pretty hard but in the last six to nine months we have really turned it around.

“It feels like a sad day because at the end of an Olympics, people stop playing and this team will never be together again.”

Owsley is set to remain part of the GB set-up but has an exciting adventure to look forward to as she heads to Argentina for the next stage of her club career.

“I love the way they play,” she said.

“I’ve played in the Netherlands before and I just want to sample as many styles as I can and test my hockey in different environments.

“If I can pick up some of the Argentina skills and bring them back to the GB team, I’ll be delighted with that.

“It’s all about adding strings to your bow and I’m excited for that experience.”

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