Romford Buccaneers defender Ellie Wakeling hailed the progress being made by the Great Britain senior women after their World Championship Division 1B tournament in Latvia.

They beat Italy (1-0) in the first game in Riga and led Poland 2-0, with former Romford player Abbie Sylvester on target, in the next before conceding a last-minute powerplay goal and losing in overtime.

After losing to top seeds Slovakia (7-1), the Brits beat Slovenia (2-1) to set up a chance of a silver medal in their last match.

But hosts Latvia came out on top 3-2, with GB eventually finishing in fourth place.

"We had a pretty full-on pre-tournament camp, did a lot of skating and worked on a lot," said Wakeling.

"But it was good to get everyone back on the ice together before the games started.

"We had really good competitive games, all of which had really tight scorelines.

"Some of the games we really dominated in, we were outshooting teams and playing physical. Everyone bought into the plan and proved what we’re capable of.

"It was exciting to be playing in a silver medal game, but unfortunately be on the wrong side of a 3-2 loss. We was really unlucky not to medal but we put in a good performance until the final whistle.

"We came home with more points than last year, which shows the progression we’ve made already."

Wakeling, 21, won a Division 1B bronze medal during her time as part of the under-18 squad in 2019 and helped the seniors to Division 2A gold in 2022.

And she admitted it was an honour to pull the jersey on again, as she took her haul of caps to a combined 37.

"I’m honoured to have been able to pull on the GB shirt again at the World Championships in Latvia," she added.

"It was good to see what we could do together as a team. We’re in a tough group, but we battled hard and proved we could compete with all teams at both ends of the ice.

"We’ve got a really close-knit group of girls and everyone plays for each other."

The squad did not spend all of their time at the rink in Riga, though, and managed to see some of the local sights.

And Wakeling is looking forward to what the future might bring, adding: "We spent a lot of time at the rink, but we’re still able to get out and enjoy our free time.

"We went into to Riga Old Town on our rest days, which was nice and had quite a bit to look at.

"It’s always fun to go away with the girls, we create memories on and off the ice and have a good time.

"It’s good to see how much we’ve progressed and I’m excited to see how we keep progressing as a group!"