University of Worcester PhD student happy to have won bronze medal at European football tournament
25-year-old Alice Hopkins was part of the England squad which finished third at this month's Women's Blind Football European Championships
A University of Worcester student has said getting the chance to play for her country on the international stage was another great occasion filled with plenty of highlights.
Alice Hopkins, who's currently studying for a PhD in English at the university, was selected in England's squad for the Women's Blind Football European Championships which took place in Türkiye at the start of this month.
The 25-year-old from Newark in Nottinghamshire had already played for the side ahead of this tournament, representing them at the IBSA Women's Blind Football World Championship in India last year and also the first Women’s Blind Football European Championships in Italy back in 2022.
At this year's competition, the team competed against Austria, Poland, Türkiye and a Neutral Para team, but missed out on a place in the final.
They secured their spot in the third-place play-off where they drew 2-2 in normal time with the Para Neutral Team before beating them 2-0 on penalties, Alice scoring one of the spot-kicks.
"It's great to come away with that medal," Alice said.
"It's one of those where obviously you want to come away with as best as you possibly can but to have pulled it off, especially at the end, and winning on penalties nonetheless."
On what she enjoyed most about it all, she added: "I think there's a lot of different things you can take away from it, for me, I have a lot of personal highlights away from the games.
"Things you won't see where we'll have different team bonding games that we will put together as players, you have all those nice little moments that no one's really going to know about and see but it's things like that which bring you together.
"Then on the pitch, for me, I've come away knowing that's one of my best tournaments I've ever had, on a personal level, I've pushed myself to new levels to new things that I've never done before."
Alice said her attentions will now turn to her studies over the next few months as well as getting ready for next year's Women's Blind Football World Championships in Brazil, which will be held in October.