Silver medal for Eve at European champs
Eve Muirhead added another silver to the trophy cabinet over the weekend - but was so close to gold.
The Perthshire ace guided her team into the final of the Le Gruyere AOP European Curling Championships in Helsingborg after a string of impressive performances.
Muirhead, Lauren Gray, Jennifer Dodds, Vicky Wright and alternate Sophie Sinclair headed into the showdown match with hosts Sweden in confident mood.
The Scots had gone into the final end leading for the first time after the second of two high quality draws by Muirhead had forced a rare mistake from Anna Hasselborg.
But a brilliant last stone from the reigning Olympic champion secured a 5-4 victory and sent Muirhead and Co home with the silver medal.
“It was tough to take, but give Anna all her dues, what a fantastic shot to win the championships,”said Muirhead.
“We put up a good fight. It was a very good game, so it’s disappointing, but we got a silver medal at Vicky’s first championships.
“It’s difficult, but what can you do. We knew it was going to come down to the last shot of the last end and it came down to a couple of inches, but that’s curling.”
At what was her 12th time at the European Championships, Muirhead had made her 300th international appearance earlier in the week.
After what has been a challenging period since she underwent hip surgery last year, there was consolation to be taken from having demonstrated the capacity to compete at the highest level once again.
Muirhead said:“I’ve got a lot of silvers at Europeans and unfortunately that’s added another one to the collection, but we’ve got a lot we can take from this week.
“What a great week we’ve had. For me, with the team being so behind me, it’s been a tough couple of years, but those girls have been fantastic.
“They’ve been supporting me every single day and we can take a lot from this. We showed that we can still win, we can still hit the podium.
“Right now, it’s Team Hasselborg’s moment. They played a fantastic shot to win the championship and well done to them.”
Winning skip Hasselborg celebrated with her home fans but was also quick to pay tribute to Muirhead’s team.
“It’s been a dream. It makes me almost want to cry,”she said.
“The fans were amazing. They carried us through the 10 ends and what a game.
“Eve and her girls played so well. We have so much respect for this team and it was a great game. We knew it would go to the wire, but we said that as long as we have hammer in the 10th end we have a good chance of winning this and we got it, but that was exciting.”