With lacrosse returning to The World Games for a third appearance in eight days’ time, England and Great Britain captain Emma Oakley has been speaking to British Lacrosse’s Instagram channel about the competition, her team’s chances, and how she’s been preparing.
“I just can't wait to show the world what we've been practicing with the team,” Oakley said, “we're such a good unit, we're such good friends, and I just can't wait to go out and enjoy the time out there.”
Preparation is the key for Oakley, affectionately known as EO by her teammates, and it’s been a three-year build-up since the last iteration of The World Games in Birmingham, Alabama in 2022.
“I guess we've been preparing for Chengdu for a while now. We've got a really fresh young group that we've been building for the last three years. We’ve put in so much work in terms of our strength programme, conditioning, but then also all of our kind of big team training sessions, and we've just come off a very wet and windy training session out in the UK.”
Since 2022, Oakley has continued to grow in her role as a leader, helping England to secure an eighth Euros title as one of three captains last year.
More recently, though, Oakley’s Great Britain squad travelled to East Asia to get a feel for the possible conditions in the region ahead of The World Games and to take in friendly matches against fellow Group A opponents Japan.
“The Japan trip was incredible. We played a few of the Japanese universities, clubs, and colleges and then we went into a few tests versus Japan themselves. We had a great time with the team, and I think we’ve built loads so I’m excited to see what we can do at The World Games.”
Speaking about being chosen as one of the captains to lead Great Britain at The World Games 2025, Oakley said:
“I'm really excited to captain the team going into Chengdu because we've got a brilliant team. It's a brilliant unit already. And actually, my job is just to ensure that we stay together. We've got a brilliant leadership group, so it's not just on me at all. We've got players across different areas of the game. I'm really excited to come together as a group and just go forward.”
Great Britain begin their The World Games campaign against China on Thursday 7 August at 7:30am (UK). For more information about the competition, click HERE.