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The event involved 18 teams and after day one the England Ladies were lying in eighth place, but only 12 points away from gold in an incredibly tight frame. Winning the event, however, came as a big surprise as the team thought they were out of contention before the weigh-in on day two. Their unpredicted score of just 18 penalty points won the second day, though, and pushed them to the top of the podium overall.

Team manager Dave Brooks was overjoyed with the result: “Words can’t describe how happy I am – it still hasn’t sunk in. After the first day we knew a medal was within reach, but winning gold was something none of the team expected.

“Running the bank was very difficult, as some teams opted to fish for bleak while others targeted a local species called vimba, and there was also the odd big barbel to contend with. On the second day, we didn’t realise quite how well we had done. The girls fished a perfect team match, and left the other countries standing!”

Former World Champion Emma Pickering put in a consistent performance on both days: “We were lucky enough to have a day practising off the match length, where we learnt a lot about the rigs and baits needed. It was a good decision to focus on a single swim for vimba, ignoring the bleak and big fish. On the first day we cupped stickymag passed our groundbait, which worked well but didn’t seem quite right. However, we simplified things further on day two, and fed everything down one line.

“Our coaches and bank runners were fantastic, with Ed Warren, Abbi Kendall and Dick Clegg doing a great job – we can’t thank them enough.”

England finished on 56 points, ahead of second-placed Croatia on 60 points. Italy filled the bronze-medal position with 62 points. England’s top points scorer was Helen Dagnall, who scored five points over the two days.

Team Result

1 England 56 points

2 Croatia 60

3 Italy 62

4 Hungary 62

5 Czech Republic 71