France’s women are back in the top level of EuroHockey U21 Championship action having qualified for this year’s event as runners-up in Championship II in Vienna in 2022.
Eight of that panel return once more to see how they fare at the next level in what is a very young panel – nine of this group played with the French Under-18s last summer in Krefeld.
Mazarine Proux captained that Under-18 side last year while Axelle Wiart traversed both the 2022 Under-21 and 2023 18s vintage. Formerly of Cambrai, she plays with Royal Léopold in the Belgian league.
Indeed, she is among a number of players lining out in foreign parts. Juliette Manzur studies at Michigan State University where she scored the team’s first goal of the season against the eventual NCAA champions North Carolina.
Adele Jardemar joins University of Maryland’s Terrapins in the autumn while Natasha Glasson attends University of Glasgow. Also in Belgium is Amelya Lison (Uccle).
Their preparation has seen them take Ireland in warm-up games with a couple of lively 4-2 defeats against the latter in May. They followed up with further games against Spain in Barcelona in June, narrowly losing out 2-1 in the first game of that series.
The French have been frequent performers on this stage for the past 14 years, competing in six of the last seven editions. They had a steady run of three consecutive sixth place finishes between 2010 and 2014 before sharing fifth place in 2017.
Their best ever performance saw them land the bronze medal in 1977, the very first edition of this competition.
