Muirhead: ‘Loss is hard to take’

A “GUTTED” Eve Muirhead appeared to question the voided final stone which saw Great Britain fall to a 8-6 women’s curling defeat to Sweden i n the round robin phase.

Britain trailed 6-4 going into t he ninth end but levelled to take the match to an extra end.

The Swedes had t he advantage of the hammer but Muirhead had the chance to make it difficult for them with Britain’s final stone.

However, the stone was voided, leaving the Swedes the simple task of clinching victory with the hammer.

It was not immediately clear if Muirhead had been penalised for not releasing the stone clearly before the red line, known as hog lining, or whether she touched the stone twice leading to her being penalised.

Either way, her final stone was taken off t he rink leaving the Swedes to wrap up the win with the hammer.

She later took to Twitter, posting a photo of t he incident which showed her hand was clear of the stone and the stone was behind the line.

Muirhead said: “The red light came on so that’s counted as a hogged rock, so that has to be taken off.

“When you see the replays in the stadium, it looks like it was. It’s hard to take and it comes down to inches and millimetres.

“It’s the first stone I have ever hogged in my life and it comes at a time like that.”

BRITAIN’S men kept their semi-final hopes alive with a 7-6 win over Denmark.

Eve Muirhead lays down a stone alongside Lauren Gray (left) and Vicki Adams.