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Teen star Lawton chasing dream Oly ending

3 minute read

Rising hockey star Amy Lawton will become the fourth youngest Hockeyroos player to feature at an Olympics when the 19-year-old appears in Tokyo.

She has the genes of a squash player and links to England, but teenager Amy Lawton's only goal for the upcoming Olympics is to bring back hockey gold for Australia.

The 19-year-old will be the fourth youngest Hockeyroo to appear at an Olympics after being named in the 16-woman squad for Tokyo.

Lawton is the daughter of two former Zimbabwean squash players, and she spent the first six years of her life in England before moving to Victoria.

So did she ever harbour thoughts of representing England?

"It was never a question in my mind. I wasn't ever going to play for them," Lawton told AAP.

"Just before I debuted my dad was like, 'You know that if you play for Australia now, you won't have a chance to play for England'.

"And I was like, 'Dad, I don't want to play for England, I want to play for Australia'."

Lawton, touted as a future star on the international hockey stage, said she was never attracted to squash despite her family links.

"My parents met playing squash. They both played squash for Zimbabwe," Lawton said.

"A couple of times mum and dad played recreationally when we moved here (to Australia), and we'd go to the courts and have a hit.

"But oh my gosh, I just wasn't very good at moving short distances really fast and hitting off the walls and all that.

"I think I hit the wall a few times myself, so it was quickly erased from my future."

The Hockeyroos and Kookaburras will be back in action this weekend when they take on New Zealand in a two-Test series in Perth.

The matches will be the final hitouts on home soil before the teams head to Japan.

The Kookaburras are ranked No.1 in the world and are one of the favourites to win gold.

The Hockeyroos have dropped to fourth in the rankings and have been mired in off-field dramas for most of the past year.

Lawton said the team were determined to put the dramas behind them and walk away as champions in Tokyo.

"We've all talked about how this could be almost a fairytale ending coming back home with the gold medal after the last year (we've had)," Lawton said.

"We're putting our head down and going, 'We're still going to try to get a gold medal at these games'."

The Hockeyroos' named their 16-person Olympic squad last week, but there was late drama when a mystery player who missed out appealed their non selection.

But that appeal has since been withdrawn, meaning there will be no changes to the squad.

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