EuroHockey U21 Championship II-B – Vienna, Austria (July 27th to August 1st)
Pool A: Austria, Czechia, Poland, Switzerland, Türkiye
Battle commences on Monday for the women’s EuroHockey U21 Championship II-B in Vienna as five teams battle for Euro promotion and a Junior World Cup spot.
They will play in a one-team group with each nation playing each other once, all hoping to end in first place which brings the dual prize.
For a number of participants, there is quite a bit of familiarity of opponent as each nation recently took part in the senior EuroHockey Championship qualifiers in Prague and all have players from those respective senior teams.
For the hosts, Katharina Proksch (34 senior caps and 5 goals) is perhaps the most decorated having won Indoor World Cup silver and made her senior debut as far back as 2021.
Indeed, she scored five times in the Junior World Cup last December where 10 of her team mates this week were also in situ; they finished 21st overall with wins over Namibia and Malaysia.
They will hope that level of togetherness will stand to them as they return to the second tier having been relegated in 2024 in Terrassa.
Other senior stars in the line-up include Anja Hasetsteiner, 16-year-old goalkeeper Sofie Draxler and Paulina Becker from their Euro qualifier-winning side but they are without the injured Philippa Proksch.
Poland – third at the qualifiers – have a similarly strong influence from the senior selection with Julia Rymer (18 caps), Oliwia Krychiniak (27), Hanna Wochna (18) captain Jagoda Arciszewska (12), Maria Drozda (26) and Sandra Hoffmann (4) all becoming central figures despite their young age.
For Drozda and Krychiniak, this will a third successive Under-21 campaign in Championship II with bronze medals in both 2022 and 2024.
Indeed, they finished in third in 2024 in Konya with a 4-1 win over Türkiye in Championship II and so they will be keen to make a push for the top two this time.
They beat Czechia to that bronze in the qualifiers and so there will be an element of revenge on their mind when they meet later this week.
For the Czechs, Anna Linková, Kamila Svatošová, Linda Nedvědová, Lucie Nová, Adéla Uhrová, Karolína Lojanová and Diana Svyščuk all traverse Under-21 and senior squads.
The team is captained by Nedvědová who already has 31 senior caps since 2023.
Türkiye are building a new senior side with half of the senior squad returning to central Europe for the second time in a month, namely: Evin Yağşi, Esma Ídik, Buse Șahiner, Narin Yüksel, Nur Baran, Sila Erkoç, Alyena Satilmiş, Zeynep Duruakan and Sila Bazna.
Six return form 2024 while Satilmiş showed her eye for goal in Prague and could be one to watch as is defender Esma Ídik. They improved as the qualifier competition progressed, ending with a 2-0 win over Croatia and so will look to continue their growth.
Switzerland, meanwhile, have six players embarking on their third Euro U21 season, namely captain Dunja Härtsch, Anya Hardeman, Maren Zimmerman, Adrienne Heselhaus, Véronique van Nunen and Tessa Hipp.
Hartsch captains the team and has a powerful drag-flick to give them a corner threat. Maya Flury is a lively forward who can make an impact this week.
