Saturday 29th June

No one likes getting up at 5am but for us this was a struggle. The only motivation was the fact that finally we start our journey to Russia where we're representing team GBR for women's football in the world university games.

All kitted out now, looking worse for wear, we fly and land in Moscow, as part of our pre tournament preparation. With it being almost 4pm it was pushing on rush hour, now you'd think somewhere the size of Russia that the roads wouldn't be too busy. Very wrong. For a supposed hour journey it took us 3 hours to get to our home for the next few days - CSKA'S training ground.

Can't complain about the facilities, roof over our head, edible food but very limited WiFi, which as you can imagine is a killer. Probably alien to us who will have to find other games/ideas to keep ourselves occupied rather than snapping selfies to our loved ones at home.

Oh, a special mention must go out to Fran Kirby, the birthday girltoday. She's already lost a wheel on her suitcase, chin up! And the poor girl was petrified of the flight so I'm sure she will welcome a good nights sleep after what felt like a week long birthday!

As of tomorrow we kick off our full schedule, training will begin and we test ourselves in this heat and humidity. We like a challenge though so I'm sure all the hours spent sweating out on the pitch will present us with results where it matters.


Naomi Cole, Team GBR #3.