The Scots, led by coach Dan Travers and team manager Rita Yuan Gao, are in Group 3 of the 34-nation tournament along with Sweden, India, USA, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Australia and Bulgaria.

India, USA and Ukraine were in Group 3 with Scotland in 2007 in Glasgow while Sweden have come down from Group 2 and the Czech Republic won promotion from Group 4. Australia and Bulgaria also find themselves moving up to Group 3.

In Glasgow Scotland defeated New Zealand 4-1 and Finland 4-1 but went down 4-1 to India in their sub-group before finishing in style with a 3-0 win in the positional play-off with USA.

But they must wait until the draw on April 25 to learn which three teams will join them in their sub-group in this 11th World Mixed Team Championship.

Country

And that's also the day when Scotland fly out to Wuhan for the second leg of their training camp with Chinese players following the visit by the Chinese in December.

Scotland finished 19th at the Sudirman Cup in Glasgow in June 2007 when 48 teams took part. But Yuan Gao, who played for Scotland at the 2005 Cup in Beijing as well as the 2007 Cup in Glasgow, is now looking forward to leading the team in the country of her birth — as well as lifting Scotland back into Division Two.

Andy Bowman, Gordon Thomson, Imogen Bankier, Emma Mason and Susan Hughes are the survivors from the Glasgow campaign although Thomas Bethell and Linda Sloan, both reserves in 2007, step up to the main squad.

Unluckily Watson Briggs, who played in 2007, has had to pass up the chance to play in May because of University examinations. As a result Longniddry's Van Rietvelde, who has just come back from the European Junior Championships in Milan, has been promoted to the squad.