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Canterbury-born Grace Balsdon helps England women's hockey team win Commonwealth Games gold for the first time in Birmingham

kentonline.co.uk

Canterbury-born Grace Balsdon helped England women's hockey team win Commonwealth Games gold for the first time. England had won a medal at every Commonwealth Games since hockey was added to the programme in 1998 - but never gold.

But 29-year-old Balsdon and co changed all that in Birmingham on Sunday in front of a boisterous home crowd. Holly Hunt's superb strike opened the scoring for England before Tess Howard deflected in a second minutes later.

Australia scored a consolation strike with 19 seconds remaining but they were unable to draw level. Balsdon, who now plays for Hampstead & Westminster, finishes the tournament as joint top scorer with six goals.

She scored a hat-trick in a big 12-0 win over Ghana and as they beat Wales 5-0 in their final group game before victories against New Zealand, in the semi-final, and Australia in the final.

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