Great Britain’s women’s flag football team missed out on qualifying for the 2028 Olympics as they suffered defeat at the World Championships.
The two-time defending European champions fought back to take the bronze-medal game to the final play, only for Mexico to clinch a 20-19 win in Dusseldorf, Germany.
That also meant Mexico – the world’s top-ranked team – secured a spot at Los Angeles 2028, when the non-contact version of American football will make its Olympic debut.
GB must wait two years for another chance to earn a spot at LA28.
They got off to a poor start on Sunday as they were intercepted on their first two drives, with the second punished by a touchdown that put Mexico 13-0 up.
An Angelica Tait touchdown saw GB, who are ranked third in the world, get up and running before Mexico struck again to make it 20-6.
Grace Conway almost claimed an interception, which she could have run in for a touchdown, and GB ran out of time on offence as they aimed to cut the score before half-time.
But they closed to within a point through two touchdowns from Emily Kemp – the tournament’s leading scorer – then went for a two-point conversion to take the lead with two minutes left.
Although Kemp caught Jess Allen’s pass at the back of the endzone, her left foot came down just out of bounds, meaning Mexico could run down the clock to seal victory.
“We fell into a bit of a hole,” GB’s head coach Jack Reed told BBC Sport. “The drive at the end of the first half and the drop for the pick-six were unfortunate.
“I knew we’d fight, I knew we weren’t out of it, and we held them scoreless in the second half. But it’s a game of inches and Emily was out by an inch.”
The USA came from behind to beat GB 27-21 in the semi-finals but the defending champions were upset 27-20 in the final by Canada, who claimed their first world title since 2014.
The USA automatically qualify for LA28 as hosts and will be joined by Canada and Mexico.
“I’m super proud of the team,” added GB coach Reed. “We showed the world that we can compete with anybody in the world. We played the number one ranked team today and number two yesterday (USA).
“We had an opportunity to win both games, they went down to the very end, so I think we earned the respect of the flag football world and surprised a lot of people.”
GB’s men beat Brazil 33-26 on Sunday to finish 13th overall, while the USA beat Italy 46-26 to secure their sixth straight world title.
Canada claimed a 34-26 overtime win over Mexico in the bronze-medal game to ensure they and Italy punched their ticket to LA28 this weekend.
