British shooter Amber Hill insisted she will have her “moment” as she thanked well-wishers after she was forced to withdraw from the Olympic Games after testing positive for coronavirus last week.
The 23-year-old is ranked number one in women’s skeet shooting and was likely to be in medal contention in Japan but she returned a positive Covid-19 result before she was due to depart for Tokyo.
The British Olympic Association did not replace Hill, who admits she is heartbroken but determined to return.
“This past week has been one of the hardest of my life,” she posted on Instagram.
“Words can’t describe how it feels to have five years of preparation for one of the biggest moments of your life ripped from in front of you.
“It’s a lot to process. I trained harder than I’ve ever trained before and felt on the best form of my life these past months.
“I earned the right to wear my kit and call myself x2 Olympian. I might be heartbroken right now but I won’t feel sorry for myself because I did everything. Everything physically possible for Tokyo 2020.
“I will be back and I will have my moment. Thank you for you (sic) thousands of messages of support, I can honestly say they have helped me through.”
Hill became the third Team GB member to be ruled out of the Games after testing positive for coronavirus, following the withdrawals of tennis pair Johanna Konta and Dan Evans earlier this month.
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here