England, India, China and Canada ended their women’s BDO Hockey Junior World Cup campaigns on a winning note after claiming their respective playoff matches in Santiago today.

Although the day was reserved to determine the final standings in the lower half of the table (positions 9-16), all teams were still striving to achieve as high a result as possible which resulted in keenly contested matches throughout the day.

England emerged the ‘best’ of the lower half, producing a complete team performance to overwhelm Chile and take ninth place. England played with consistency and urgency throughout the match and controlled play, with well-taken chances in front of goal providing a fitting reward for a strong overall display.

England will be disappointed they couldn’t produce the form shown today throughout the preliminary phase because it almost certainly would have resulted in them competing tomorrow for a much higher position.

Chile 10th place is a great effort for a team that was not expected to challenge the more established hockey nations.

Feeding of the incredible support and energy generated by the home crowd, Chile played entertaining and adventurous hockey throughout the tournament and tested every team they met.

They were slightly below their best against England today and couldn’t manage to apply pressure to their opposition for long enough periods, but they can be proud of their efforts over the last 11 days.

India claimed 11th place after a tough struggle against Scotland. India’s inability to score multiple goals in a match had previously been the reason for them amassing four draws in six matches during the preliminary phase, but today’s they were able to find the net twice in the second half to break a half time deadlock along with the Scottish resistance.

China and Canada won the day’s opening two matches to finish 13th and 15th. China did enough to overcome Belarus in a scrappy match that failed to find any rhythm.

Canada avoided last place by disposing of a spirited Zimbabwe. Canada were never seriously threatened and could have won by more than a four-goal margin but wasted good scoring chances especially in the first half.

Tomorrow the four remaining matches in the tournament will decide positions 1-8. Germany and Korea will in the title match, while Netherlands and Australia will fight for bronze after both suffered desperate semi final losses on Friday.

The battle for fifth place is between Argentina and Spain, while South Africa will meet USA in the playoff for seventh in the day’s opening match.