Born in Boston in Lincolnshire and raised in Kenya, before returning to the Midlands to complete her education and start an impressive hockey career, Leicester Hockey Club’s star defender Crista Cullen has developed into one of the best players in the world.   

A regular with England and Great Britain, Crista made her senior international debut aged 17 and went on to win bronze medals at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and 2007 European Championships.

Cullen also played at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and is likely to be a crucial part of the London 2012 team. The extremely talented and focused 24-year-old spoke to Soar Magazine to assess Leicester’s impressive season, preview this summer’s Samsung Champions Trophy with England and outline her hopes for Great Britain in the future.  

Leicester dominated the National Premier League division last season, going unbeaten until the crucial play-off final, where they narrowly lost to Slough. Despite that disappointment, Crista sees the overall campaign as a success.

“To get so many wins made it a fantastic season. For a Premiership team going through a whole season having all wins and one draw is obviously a pretty exceptional record. Not only that, winning the indoor title and in addition winning the cup made it a pretty exceptional year for Leicester. It’s been great fun and the girls have been really good when it mattered, it’s just unfortunate and slightly frustrating that the play-off game for that top spot in Europe just went beyond our grasp.

“Luckily we managed to get into that top European Competition through other results so hopefully we can do ourselves justice there. Coming off the back of that disappointment, one of the only ones we had last season, it really gives us that fire in our belly to do it when it counts in Europe.”

One of eight Leicester players in the Great Britain squad, Crista spoke about the centralised system within the national set up ahead of July’s Samsung Champions Trophy.

“We play as England at the Champions Trophy, but as Great Britain we have been together for a four-year Olympic cycle. It’s the first time we’ve done that for any Olympic campaign. In preparations for London we came together in November as a whole squad.

“We’ve played together since then in a centralised programme, training three days a week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, with Thursday and Friday off. We all relocated to London too and that has meant we’ve had the ability to play together, prepare better, know each other day-in, day-out, on and off the pitch, and hopefully that’ll come to fruition during the Champions Trophy.”

After gaining an abundance of international experience and being named in a World 11 All Star team, Crista knows a fair bit about top class hockey and is looking forward to the Championship Trophy competition between England, China, Germany, Argentina, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

“That’s the top six nations in the world and people are saying it’s the best event ever held in hockey. It’s really exciting as the top teams are playing off and world ranking points are at stake. Ultimately it drives every team to want to get that top spot. We have to be realistic as England. We’re ranked seventh in the world and fifth at the tournament.

“It’s going to be a really hard tournament for us but what a great test for the centralised programme that we’ve been in. We’ve been preparing for the performance phase and that starts off with Championship Trophy. It’s great preparation for future tournaments, including London 2012, to play in front of a home crowd at Nottingham. I really hope that Nottingham buys into it as a City and gives us as much support as possible. Then we’ve got the World Cup in Argentina and the Commonwealth Games following afterwards.”

Crista hopes that England will be able to benefit from home advantage in Nottingham, something she’s also looking for Great Britain to utilise during the 2012 Olympics in London.  

“We’ve had a bit of experience of it playing in Manchester during the European Cup. We went into a third/fourth play-off game against Spain. Third meant automatic qualification for Beijing and fourth meant further qualifying games. Obviously that was a hugely pressurised game, especially off the back of the previous campaign when the team hadn’t qualified for Athens, but the crowd made a huge impact on our team and we managed to get a 3-2 win. If we can turn it around to our advantage again it will be great.”

A veteran of the GB team for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Cullen is looking to draw from that experience and be in the medal mix come 2012.

“I was involved in the campaign pre-Athens when unfortunately we didn’t qualify. In Beijing we did really well and just missed out in the semi-finals, which really gives you that drive to put it right and what better place to do that than in front of your home crowd in London.

“As an Olympian, the Olympics are the pinnacle of my sport. Being able to go to Beijing was a pretty special thing to experience as an athlete. We missed out in the semi-finals and we weren’t on the podium. It’s one thing being an Olympian but it’s another thing having a medal around your neck.

“At the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne I got a bronze medal and obviously we want to improve on that and get that winning mentally and strive for the best that we can. We’ve got a great team with a great potential and we need it all to click at the right time.”

Olympic success remains an achievement that consumes Cullen’s sporting thoughts and whilst she remains realistic, Crista is also dreaming of standing alongside her team-mates with a medal around her neck as ‘God save the Queen’ blares out and the Union Jack is raised skyward.

“We have to still be realistic and I myself have to be realistic. The team we’ve got at the moment is ranked as seventh in the world and we need to climb those world rankings to get ourselves in a position where we can compete in London. What better chance to prepare for that then by competing and doing well in the Champions Trophy. We just need to keep chipping away and improving heading into London 2012. It’s a huge ambition for me. I dream about it and I’d love to be on a podium at London and there would be nothing better to do it in front of a home crowd.”

Crista was speaking at the England Hockey Media Day held at Beeston Hockey Club.

The Samsung Champions Trophy is taking place at the Highfields Sports Club in Nottingham between July 10th and 18th.

Tickets are on sale now. To seal a great view of some top class sporting action you can purchase tickets either online by visiting www.wct2010.com or over the phone by calling 08444 77 5678.