McCafferty's in the zone

Great Britain women's handball captain Lynn McCafferty has been chosen as an Olympic torchbearer and hopes to celebrate by beating Poland in their Euro 2012 Group Three qualifier on Thursday.

The 32-year-old has been selected to carry the torch in the Scottish town of Selkirk in June along with team-mate Holly Lam-Moores.

And as the build-up to the London Games picks up speed, the Cumbernauld-born playmaker is relishing the chance to be involved.

"The nomination forms were sent for all associations and my team-mates selected me and Holly," she told Press Association Sport. "So that is really exciting. It will be a really good day where all my friends and family can come and watch.

"I am really honoured that my team-mates have nominated me. It's for them as well, it's just me and Holly that are representing handball."

Her focus will be on the court on handball this week, though, as GB return to the court for a competitive match for the first time since the London Handball Cup in November, which acted as the official Olympics test event.

During that six-team round-robin tournament at the Copper Box in the Olympic Park, Jesper Holmris' side produced arguably their best ever display by beating African champions Angola. That success came hot on the heels of a sterling performance against then world champions Russia in an earlier Euro 2012 qualifier.

And while they lost against the European powerhouses, three days after a disappointing defeat against Montenegro, McCafferty believes they can go into clash with Poland at Loughborough University with some confidence, though warns it will be difficult against a physically superior side.

"It is going to be tough for us. We have played them five times and they have won every time," she added.

"We hope we are a little bit more tactically aware of them and we have got stronger so we are hoping we can do better against them."

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