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Baseball player helps Great Britain secure Euros win

Shivani ChaudhariBBC News, Northamptonshire
Isabella Verona/BBC A woman wearing a black Team GB top and smiling at the camera Isabella Verona/BBC
Sophie Willis is 23 years old and plays baseball for Great Britain

A baseball player said it was "incredible" to play a part in helping Great Britain clinch victory at a major European tournament in the Czech Republic.

Sophie Willis, from Wootton Fields, Northampton, took up the American staple in 2019 and first competed in the GB Women's team in 2022 - when they came fourth in the European Championships in Montpellier.

The GB team was first formed in 2020 and won the World Baseball Softball Confederation Europe Women's Baseball European Championships earlier this month.

Ms Willis, 23, said: "We had actually lost to the Czech Republic a few days earlier so it felt really sweet to win that game and secure our place."

Getty Images Woman baseball player smashes the ball with a dark blue batGetty Images
Women's baseball is growing in popularity and is now played in several European countries

The baseball player, who combines the sport with her role as a PE teacher, said: "We're going to the world championship group stage because we qualified by winning the Euros."

The games are taking place in America next year.

She said: "We've not been to a world championship before, some of the other European teams have been around for a few more years, so they're definitely a bit more big."

Ms Willis told BBC Radio Northampton that the team usually plays against male teams while in England - but abroad they get to play against other women.

She said: "It's nice to see that this is [not] the standard in other countries."

Great Britain Women will now go on to the 2026 WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup Group Stage as the third European team, after France and the Netherlands.

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