This honestly feels like the gold medal match for the Olympics. I guess that is why they have called it a pre Olympic tournament as they want it to feel like the real thing. They have filled the stands with capacity crowd to test out the Olympic stadium and also the fact that we are playing China makes it extremely loud with the crowd all cheering for the home team.......China!!! It is a 6 pm match and we are a bit tired but very pumped to come away with a gold medal and lots of pride.

The first five minutes of the match took my breath away. It was such a fast pace and there was no time to stand still or contemplate the direction of the match. It was full on and action packed. China came out to play some good hockey and did not let their fans down. They had their fans on the edge of their seats.......but so did the Hockeyroos. The game was fast, skilful and end to end action. Both teams made plenty of scoring opportunities and the defence from both teams was world class.

With 10 minutes to go in the match and the scores locked at 2-2 both teams began to tire and drag their feet a bit. It is very difficult to keep up such a fast pace for the entire 70 minutes and this was no exception. The final hooter sounded and the scores were locked at 2-2. That meant a two minute break and then on to two lots of golden goal extra time of seven and a half minutes each way. By the end of that time the scores were still locked which meant we then went to penalty strokes. This is not a nice way to end a match but when you have 2 teams who have just played exceptional hockey it's probably the fairest way to decide a winner.

Coach Murray picked out his five players to take the penalties. This was his order......Sanders, Arrold, Hudson, Walker and Skirving. All confident and all good stroke takers. We walked up to the goal circle, heads held high, confidence bursting from our faces and posture. We knew what had to be done and we were ready for the challenge. Sanders put her stroke in; the Chinese girl put hers in as well. Arrold put her stroke in; the Chinese girl hit the post and missed. I walked up to the spot, placed my ball, picked my spot and blocked out the boo's from the crowd. This is what I train for.......this is what I do every day and I feel confident. Umpire's whistle sounds, push ball as hard as possible. GOAL!!!!!! Chinese girl takes her stroke which is saved by Imison. Walker takes her stroke and what a stroke it is.......but unfortunately it is saved by the Chinese goalkeeper. Chinese girl approaches spot, if she misses it's all over and we win. We hold our breath as she pushes the ball and there is a loud ting noise as it hits the post and misses the goal. We all jump high with arms in the air as the gold medal is ours. We love winning and the feeling it gives us. We are presented with our gold medals in a medal presentation ceremony, similar to that of an Olympic games. We sing the national anthem with pride and our arms are around each other as we picture this time next year when we will be playing at the Olympics.

The men play China in the gold medal match and easily defeat China 6-0. They have played extraordinary hockey and I have enjoyed watching the way they play. They are definitely the best in the world and the skill and speed they possess is just awesome to watch. It has also been really nice to have got to know a few of the guys a bit better and for both of us to support each other in this tournament. A very successful pre-Olympic tournament for both the Hockeyroos and Kookaburra teams.

The final round match against china is basically a dead rubber match as we have already made the gold medal match and will actually be playing china again in that match. But for us we never take a match easy and today is no exception. We will be out there to beat China convincingly and to stamp our authority on the world stage.

It was nice to play a night match and especially at 8pm as the sun had well and truly set and the temperature was perfect for a hard international match. We were certainly up for a good match and played very good hockey in the first half. China are a very good team, they have amazing basic skill and have so much discipline. They put everything they had to us but it was not enough and we came out eventual winners with a 3-0 score line.

I think the match was a lot closer than 3-0 but we just made the most of any opportunities presented to us. I scored another field goal and I think I could get used to this scoring a goal a game routine that I have suddenly put myself in. I only wish it was as easy to score as to visualise scoring!!!!!!!! I am so proud of how the girls are playing and it's nice for us to be having so much success as we have worked very hard to get to were we are today.

The only dampener on our tournament so far has been injuries to two of our key players, my co captain Mel Twitt badly pulled her hamstring early on in the tournament so will not play in any of the matches and also our young gun midfielder Casey Eastham has pulled her hamstring and will also not play in any more matches. It will be great to have both of them back playing in the qualifiers tournament in Buderim in September. Frank seemed happy with the result and now we can go into the gold medal match full undefeated and full of confidence.

The men are playing China in the gold medal match after us on Sunday night.

If we win match two then we are straight through to the gold medal match which is an extra incentive for us to play well against one of the top teams in the world. It was a very early start for us today as we had to play the match at 830 in the morning to try and beat the heat and humidity. I am certainly not good at early mornings, let alone my team mates who usually don't like to wake up on tour any earlier than 9am!!!!!! Luckily for most of them who live in Perth they have been training at 5.30 in the morning to enable girls to get to work on time, so they are used to early matches.

We started the match a bit rusty and not at all like the dynamic team we've been playing like lately. At half time Frank blew a fuse and had to verbally motivate us to pick up our match as we were really disappointing and if we wanted to win we needed to come out firing on all cylinders for the second half. It's amazing what a few choice words from a coach can do to a team and can turn around a match which is exactly what happened with us.

We came out playing like a new team for the second half and the final result was a 3-1 victory to us. I am on a bit of a roll and managed to score another field goal in this match. It's nice to be contributing to the goal tally, considering it is my job to score goals as I am a striker!!!!!! The team is pretty exhausted after the match but nothing a long soak in the ice baths won't fix. It certainly helps heal the muscles and makes our bodies feel refreshed for the next day.

Today we started our pre Olympic four nation tournament against China, Argentina, and South Africa. The Kookaburra's men's team are also playing in the tournament against Malaysia, China and Pakistan and this will be a great test for them leading into the qualifiers in Buderim.

Our match was at 1030 am against South Africa and from the moment we took the pitch for our warm up we knew we were in for a real test physically as it was the hottest day so far on our tour and the humidity was high as well. We cut out warm up short by 5 minutes to save using all our energy in the sun and we completed our warm up in our ice vests and this certainly helped keep our core temperature down for the match. By the time the whistle sounded for the start of the match we were well and truly warmed up and under way.

Because of the attacking style we play we found we did get quiet fatigued and tired during the match as we do tend to just go for it and not try to reserve our energy. We played well as a team and came away with a 3 nil win against South Africa and I even managed to get my name on the scorecard sheet with a penalty corner flick. It is a nice way to start the tournament and also the fact that we played well as a team will be sure to please coach Murray.

The men won their opening match and it is always a pleasure to watch them play as they play so well as a team and are so strong and fast not to mention the mind boggling skill they possess.

After a day of rest and sightseeing the Chinese landmarks it was back to work for game two against China. They would be coming out fighting as they had lost the first match to us and it would not look good to them or their government sport bodies to be losing too many matches leading into a home Olympics.

Today is an extra special match. It is a day of very honourable milestones for 2 of our greatest players. My closest friend in the team Angie Lambert (formerly Skirving) and my co-captain Melanie Twitt. What a truly wonderful achievement to have played 200 international matches for your country. They are two players who deserve so much recognition for what they are about to achieve and I know today myself and my team will play our hearts out for them, feeling immense pride to be playing beside such legends of the sport and we will all wear our country colours with pride today. Ange is my closest friend in the team and is someone whom I have always admired both on and off the field. She is genuine, loyal and stands by her friends. As a hockey player she is one of the best defenders in the world. Not many people get around an Angie tackle and if they do god help them because she will catch you with her dive! So proud of you girls, and a very heartfelt congratulations to you from me.

Once again the temperature it hot and humid but I feel we are adjusting better to it every day. The Chinese team looked pumped and eager to level the score after their first defeat. The match starts at an even higher tempo than the last one. The Chinese are very physical and before to long they have cleaned up a few of our players. Not to worry, we learn to be tough and pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off. China score first goal, a rocket of a penalty corner fling that nearly takes Emily Halliday's head with it into the back of the net. We pick our tempo up to put the pressure on them. We reply soon after with a fantastic individual goal by Madonna Blyth. We are too knackered to jump all over her so she is content with a quick hand slap by all. Back to business.

This is one of the hardest hockey matches I have played in a long time. There is moment in the first half where after I have been for a big run with the ball I slouch over my stick and ask myself why I put myself through it? I don't have time to answer as a ball just came flying towards me.......time to do something Hudson. I use some strength and pure grit to get through 2 Chinese defenders, one of whom has let go of her own stick and has decided to hold mine to stop me. But to no avail because I just worked out why I do this..........I love the challenge, the aggression, and the mental toughness. Bring it on!!!!

Come the second half and china score from a free play. We are now on fire (literally) as it so hot. We are pumping these Chinese with all the force we can. We win a penalty corner and score from one of our frequently practices deflections. Soon after Megan Rivers takes the lead with a great field goal. Final result: Australia 3, China 2. Two out of two wins against one of the toughest teams in the world. Great job girls, I am so proud of you as always...........

We played our first ever hockey match at an indoor complex. It is a state of the art design that enables you to play in any kind of temperature. They can set the heating and humidity to conditions like the ones currently outside or put the maximum cold temperature on to suggest it is nearly zero (0) degrees Celsius outside. It is a very impressive structure although it does not feel the same as just playing outside in the normal air, come rain or shine! The humidity and heat was set high for our match and I must say it was one of the worst conditions I have played in for a long time. Most people by the conclusion of the match had lost 1-2 kilos of sweat!  Crazy...

We are experimenting with core temperature analysis on this tour which means our physiologist has this new device which is a reasonably small capsule, perhaps the size of a menthol lolly and we have to swallow it before a match and during the match it sits in your stomach and when you are substituted to the bench they put an instrument to your stomach and with the pill inside you it measures your core temperature to make sure your not overheating. It is ground breaking information that will hopefully help us along the way in Beijing next year.

Today's match was also a milestone for one of our young up and coming players. Kate Hollywood played her 50th match for Australia. Congrats to Kate and she is someone whom I am sure will be around for a long time and who is a very hard working member of our team.

The match started at a frenetic pace which is always the case when we play Asian teams. We attack, they attack, vice versa for nearly the whole game but it tends to shatter you as it gets so fast paced you need to somehow slow it down to gain some composure. We were a bit sloppy on the ball and not as well in control as we would have liked and china scored first goal so we played catch up from there. We scored from a penalty corner variation to level the scores and they soon followed with a penalty corner flick to put them ahead 2-1. Second half came around and both teams continued to hound each other with some good pieces of play from both teams. Then it was time for an individual piece of brilliance from striker Hope Munro who smacked a reverse stick shot past the Chinese keeper to level scores at 2-2. Hope followed up with yet another good individual play to score the winner for us to win the match 3-2. Very tough match and well earned win. Lots of rest and recovery will need to be done to prepare for the next match.

Our china tour did not start as well as planned. For the Eastern states girls our travel was fine and not to troublesome but for the poor Perth group there flights turned into the trip from hell. What was supposed to be an all round travel time of around 15 hours turned into a long delay of 36 hours due to mechanical problems with the plane. So after eventually arriving in Beijing a day late they were pretty exhausted and also not happy. Training had to therefore be canned on the first day as the girls were too tired and had only arrived hours earlier than our training time. The first day was spent catching up on sleep followed by a run in the afternoon and a video session that night.

How best to describe Beijing so far.......interesting and hot to say the least. Temperatures are averaging 32-38 degrees and the humidity blows you away. It is not a particularly clean place but you must always be accepting of other countries cultures and we will make sure we do this. Our hotel is absolutely wonderful. Very big and very grand and not at all as I expected. The girls were very worried as to what the food would be like as in china they tend not to waste any part of food or animal when cooking it.......which means you can find yourself eating chicken or bird, beak, legs, head and all. The first night we sat down to dinner the girls were pleasantly surprised by how lovely the food was. We must be very careful not to drink the water or eat any foods that have the potential to make us ill, but so far so good.

Our first training session yesterday nearly killed us as we were training in about 38 degree direct heat. A little difficult to adjust having come from and Australian winter but we will eventually adjust to it. That is the whole purpose of us coming here at this time, to get used to the conditions for the Olympics next year which are being held at exactly the same time. Tonight we play our first match against china so I will update you in the next day or two on our results.....