ALL ABOUT EVE

SWISSMISS KO’SSCOTS

KYLE SMITH’S Great Britain men’s curling team finished fifth in the Winter Olympics after being knocked out in a play-off with Switzerland.

Victory was needed to advance to the semi-finals and the Scots quartet began well, only for the Swiss to claim the ninth end 5-0 and take an unassailable advantage.

Perthshire’s Kyle Smith, his brother Cammy Smith, Kyle Waddell and Thomas Muirhead were competing in their first Games.

The GB skip said: “We gave it our best shot but that’s the dream over.

“It’s a sore one. We gave ourselves the chance of making the semi-finals but couldn’t make it happen.” EVE MUIRHEAD insists she does not feel the pressure of being the last British medal hope standing as she bids to crown a third Winter Olympics with curling gold.

The Scot leads her team into today’s semi-final against Sweden as the last realistic chance for Great Britain to beat their record medal haul of four from Chamonix and Sochi.

Play-off defeat for the men’s team against Switzerland, plus a series of underwhelming training times from the four-man bobsleigh, mean the rest of the Games from a British perspective is all about Eve.

Muirhead, above right, said: “As a team we love playing under pressure and thrive on it. When you’re in the moment on that sheet of ice you don’t think about anything else.

“In every competition we tend to start slowly and build momentum. I always worry we’ve left it too late but this time we haven’t. We make it quite hard for ourselves but we’ve booked our spot.”

Muirhead’s team face a tough last-four clash against Anna Hasselborg’s Sweden who beat them 8-6 in the round-robin stages and finished second in the standings behind runaway leaders South Korea.

There will be a Scottish name in the opposition. Sara McManus, the 27-year-old vice-skip, is the daughter of Stuart McManus, the Scottish footballer who was at Southampton before moving to Sweden.

McManus said: “My dad comes from Scotland but I’m born and raised in Sweden so I’m super Swedish.”

Vicki Adams believes Rhona Martin’s Stone of Destiny at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City will be an inspiration for Team Muirhead.

Current GB star Adams was taught by Martin when she was growing up in Stranraer.

And she said: “Rhona was massive, not just with working with me on a one-to-one basis but watching her performance in 2002 and then having her as a coach.

“She became such a massive role model. I wanted to do what she’s done. I saw her at a few events recently and afterwards she’s come up to say well done. She’s always in our corner.

“The dream is to come away with a medal. We know we’re capable but we’ll need to see.

“But if we got gold I’m not sure there’d be much celebrating because we’re straight back home for the Worlds.”