Heather Fell, Olympic silver medallist, writes about her life in the media and sports world.

I SIT down to write with a feeling of huge relief that is unsurprisingly completely related to sport. No matter whether you prefer the round or oval ball it has been a tense week for any England fan. Thursday saw the return of the Anglo-Welsh rivalry on the sports’ field — this time at the European Football Championships. With several Welsh friends still living off their victory over England in the Rugby World Cup I was not sure I could stomach another significant loss to our neighbours.

Thankfully this time, despite a nail-biting 1-0 deficit at half time, England came out on top — lets just hope we can progress further than this first round. As for our rugby team they are almost unrecognisable since the coaching appointment of Australian Eddie Jones. England succeeded in clinching an historic series win against Australia in the autumn rugby internationals and appeared unstoppable; the result marked a complete turnaround by the team who failed to make it out of their pool in the World Cup just a few months ago.

Closer to home, I tried my hand at polo to raise money for a worthy cause. I managed just a handful of lessons and less than two weeks after I first picked up a polo stick I was playing in front of a crowd of thousands.

I made up a quarter of the Olympians’ team (also comprising Zara Tindall, Victoria Pendleton and Laura Tomlinson) against the Jockeys’ (made up of Sir AP McCoy, Richard Dunwoody, John Francome and Marcus Armytage). Despite everyone being a competent rider, we were all outside our comfort zones as we galloped after the small, white ball, waving our long uncontrolled sticks in its direction. I was pleased that the Olympians came out on top and I thoroughly enjoyed my first ever game of polo — even if my enthusiasm far outstripped my ability.