Great Britain U20 Head Coach Tom Watkins has described the ‘incredible experience’ of competing for a medal at the World Championships.

Last week’s competition in France was Watkins’ first in charge of the GB side, who eventually won bronze after the hosts beat Poland 7-2 in the final game.

Watkins was delighted with the national team’s performance in a tough Division One, Group B competition.

He said: “The whole tournament was fantastic and it was an incredible experience to coach my national team. The players and staff were all great.

“The whole squad bought into a pretty simple system, which proved to be very effective. To go home with a bronze medal is a phenomenal achievement and everyone should be very proud.”

Great Britain tied on points with gold medal winners France, who go on to play the likes of Germany and Norway in next year’s Group A competition.

Despite beating Slovenia, France and Ukraine, GB were handed bronze by virtue of their lesser goal difference, after a bruising 9-3 defeat to Poland in the second game.

Watkins added: “I think if anyone had told us that we would be fighting for silver going into the last game of the tournament, I wouldn’t have believed them.

“We went there with the mindset that we wanted to stay up. So to achieve what we did was wonderful for everyone. It has been a great team and a superb group of people to work with.”