Ice Hockey UK general secretary Andy French says he was proud of the performances shown by GB’s Verity Lewis in the ice hockey skills challenge at the Youth Olympics in Lillehammer.

The teenager just missed out on a chance to compete in the finals, despite picking up a personal best in each of the six skills.

She finished joint-ninth at the end of the qualification rounds.

Lewis, who was just one point off qualifying, was unlucky to be drawn in the opening round of the puck control challenge against the eventual winner, Martina Fedorova.

She lost by just 0.4 seconds, which would have been the one point she needed to go through.

This followed a third-placed finish in the passing accuracy and fourth in skating agility, which had positioned the Berkshire athlete in with a chance of making the top eight before coming up against the highly fancied Russian.

French said: “Verity did herself proud, as well as Team GB and the whole of UK ice hockey.

“She was up against some top athletes and she more than held her own and was unlucky not to progress to the finals.

“She worked so hard out here and represented her country so well.”