Kathryn Fudge described the experience of competing for Team GB at the Olympic Games as “utterly amazing” despite Team GB suffering a 31-19 loss in their Group A opener against Montenegro.

The match represented the first time a British side had competed in the sport at the Games and although the result leaves the women’s team bottom of their pool, there were plenty of positives to draw upon.

Montenegro are considered one of the stronger sides in the competition and although they ultimately ran out comfortable winners, the British side put up a determined fight, with four-goal Fudge proving a lively presence.

The 22-year-old from Beckenham explained that she had never played in front of a British crowd quite like that in the Copper Box on Saturday night and hopes the squad can help the public embrace handball.

“It is utterly amazing. Quite a lot of the British public don’t even know what handball is. This is what it is all about. It is about legacy,” she explained.

“We just want to get people involved and that is what it is all about.

“Obviously we want to play well and compete and give a good reflection of ourselves, but we want to get the public behind us, and they seemed to enjoy it.”

Britain will now take on Russia on Monday and Fudge is hopeful they can improve on the last time the two nations met.

“We played them in May and we lost by nine. We have just got to work from that. We are hoping to improve on that,” the left back said.

“We just want to give a good reflection of ourselves and get everyone into handball. The crowd loved it so this is what it is all about.

“We just want to show a good reflection of ourselves and do ourselves proud. It wasn’t the best result ever but this is one of the top teams. They could get a medal.

“There are only the best teams here. We are not the most experienced players so we have got to take what we can from it.”