Ice cool Smith is finding form
Team GB still in the hunt for a medal
Guildtown’s Kyle Smith has kept his hopes of a medal at the Winter Olympics alive.
The Perthshire curler remained cool to secure a vital round robin win against Italy before returning to the ice to defeat Denmark yesterday.
Team Smith now sit on four wins, three defeats with only Norway and the United States to play.
In Sunday’s game with Italy, Smith was required to draw his final stone in the extra end to chalk down a 7-6 win.
“I didn’t have a lot of confidence and that was one of my worst games of the week but the guys did a great job to set that up for me,” he said.
“I thought about all the times I’ve thrown that shot in practice and tried to stay in the moment and get my weight right.
“It was a must win match to stay in contention with some of the other teams and a couple more wins and things will be looking really good.”
Team GB’s women’s rink, led by Blair Atholl’s Eve Muirhead, lost to Sweden in controversial circumstances on Sunday morning.
As Muirhead delivered Britain’s final stone, the lights on the handle flashed to indicate she had not released the rock before the hog line.
Video replays suggested that Team Smith recorded vital wins against Italy and Denmark
was not the case but the stone was removed from play.
The Swedes moved on to record an 8-6 extra-end win.
“It is the first stone I think I have hogged in my life and I guess when it comes at a time like that it is horrible,” Muirhead said.
“When something like that happens, it makes it very tough to take and it’s gutting it finished that way.
“We did get the stone tested and the stone is fine so there is nothing we can do. We have to move on.”
Muirhead did move on and defeated Switzerland 8-7.