A St Albans teacher who is captain of the Great Britain underwater hockey team is delighted to have the honour of holding a winning cup after she helped beat off stiff competition in Italy.

Victoria Risianova, a beauty, design and technology teacher at St Columba’s College in Kings Harry Lane, is proud to have beaten Italy in the finals to win the Parma Cup 2012, an underwater hockey international competition, for the fifth successive year.

The British Ladies Masters Underwater Hockey team went up against 25 teams from ten countries and two continents. Victoria, 38, is captain of the British Ladies Masters Underwater Hockey team and has been part of the team since 2005.

Underwater hockey is also called Octopush and a global non contact sport in which two teams compete to move a puck across the bottom of a swimming pool into goals.

She said: "My friend introduced me to underwater hockey and told me to come along and try it out.

"I didn’t really know much about the sport and it is not known about by many people.

"It is a very different sport and since my first time I haven’t looked back.

"I really enjoy it and it is a great feeling to win a cup."

Victoria trains every week in Westminster Lodge Leisure Centre, in Holywell Hill, where she regularly swims and exercises and also teaches after school swimming to youngsters.

The team is now gearing up for the World Underwater Hockey Championships, which will take place in Hungary in 2013.