Eve’s curling dream swept away in semi
RIATH AL-SAMARRAI reports from Pyeongchang
IT COULD hardly have gone worse for Eve Muirhead, except perhaps if she had dropped a stone on her foot and bashed her thumb with the hammer. Even then it would be close.
What an underwhelming way for the Scot and her team to give up the chase for gold, losing 10-5 against Sweden in the semi-finals with the gentlest of whimpers.
Yes, the Swedes are an excellent side. Fifth best in the world, by ranking, and a good bit better going by Olympic form. But, to paraphrase an old headline, no one expected them to make turnips of Britain quite like this.
The narrative out of the team would have it a little more upbeat, of course. ‘We did ourselves proud,’ said Muirhead and Anna Sloan in separate interviews. ‘As a team we battled hard,’ added Muirhead.
But by their own high standards, this was flat and uninspiring, a defeat that almost passed by unchallenged. Britain never looked the better side and did not lead at any point before shaking hands on defeat with an end to spare.
They will have a chance to win bronze today against Japan, but it will sting Muirhead that in her biggest tie since finishing third at Sochi 2014, she could not touch her recent form. ‘We’re absolutely gutted,’ Muirhead said.
‘It will take time to get over. Any semi-final you lose is very hard. We had a good chance.
‘Four years ago we came through a semi-final loss (against Canada) and got a bronze. We learnt a lot four years ago and hopefully we’ll play well for that bronze medal.
‘I have never said I am coming here just for the gold,’ added the 27-year-old.
‘I have trained hard over the last four years to come to the Olympics and as a team we come out and play the best we can. We came up short against a very good Swedish team but we did ourselves proud.’
The pivotal moment came in the seventh end. Sweden led 5-3 and Muirhead, with the hammer, had a shot to gain up to three points. Instead she clipped the Swedish guarding stone and gave up three in one go, falling 8-3 behind. ‘As a skip you have to make these shots
and if not, against a strong team, you are going to be on the back foot,’ Muirhead said.
The expectation on Muirhead was considerable coming into these Games and it had grown in the past week as Britain stalled in sight of their target of five medals. That was set by UK Sport in return for £ 32million of funding and curling’s slice was a considerable £5.6m.
Given curling’s rather quirky nature, the scale of its funding usually comes in for some scepticism every four years. That will only intensify if Muirhead and her team fall short against Japan.
Sharing the load with the Scot today was Billy Morgan, an outside hope for a big air medal in the early hours of this morning. A SECOND Russian athlete has tested positive for a banned substance in Pyeongchang. Nadezhda Sergeeva, who finished 12th in the two-woman bob, failed a test for the stimulant trimetazidine. It comes less than 24 hours after Alexander Krushelnitskiy was stripped of his mixed doubles curling bronze medal.