Netball: Hannah Williams to represent England at Netball Championship in Belfast

Hannah Williams

Hannah Williams, 16, from Milnrow, has been selected to represent England at the U17 Netball Europe Championship in Belfast later this year following a successful trial in Derby on 15 January.

Hannah said: “It's great to have this opportunity and I'm really excited to head over to Ireland. I can't wait to play in the red dress and represent my country and hopefully we'll come back with the cup.”

The 16-year-old is currently in the 2017 NPL U19 squad for Manchester Thunder, and was part of the winning squad in 2016 when they won the league for the sixth time. She is also on Tameside’s Premier League One squad, currently sixth in the national league.

She was nominated for a trial with England Netball in March 2015 and was selected for the National Academy U17 and U19 in November that year. She was reselected in summer 2016 and attends residential training camps across the country for one weekend out of each month. She also attends tri-regional and positional training days throughout the year.

She has worked her way up through the Greater Manchester County and North-West Regional Academies and is currently on the North West Regional Performance Academy.

Hannah, who is currently in Year 12 at Crompton House, began playing netball with her friend Megan at Milnrow Parish CE School when she was eight. She would like to attend university, but is undecided on what she wants to study, but knows she wants to "continue netball for as long as possible".

She said: “I’ll continue training and working hard and making progress with my netball career.”

Currently, Hannah trains two or three times per week in the evenings and focuses on strength and conditioning twice a week to further enhance her sporting performance.

She joined Rochdale Netball Club at the age of 10 and moved to Tameside Netball U13 side when she was 12. The U13 squad went on to become National Finals runners-up at U14 and National Champions at U16.

The Championship takes place in Belfast 3 - 5 March.