Curlers selected to represent Scotland
Curlers Eve Muirhead and Mili Smith will represent Scotland at next month’s Le Gruyère AOP European Championships.
The Perthshire pair will be accompanied by Vicky Wright, Jen Dodds and Hailey Duff in Lillehammer, Norway from November 20-27.
The quintet has come through a robust and challenging selection process that has seen nine players compete for places over the early part of this season, with line-ups repeatedly re-shuffled to provide opportunities and test team dynamics.
Smith, from Guildtown and a former Perth Academy student who grew up playing at Dewars, will be making her debut at the Europeans.
Muirhead, meanwhile, is no stranger to competing on this stage and she is looking forward to pulling on the Scotland shirt once again.
“I’m obviously absolutely delighted to get the selection again for the Europeans and hopefully on to the Olympic qualifier,” said Muirhead.
“It actually feels like a bit of a relief if I’m honest. It has been a very tough process for all of us. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind.”
Muirhead believes that the way the British Curling programme has handled the selection process has been vindicated by the performances of all nine players who have reached a succession of finals at home and abroad since the beginning of this season.
“There’s been very good times and very tough times, but if you look at the results throughout the process they have been very positive from everybody,” she said.
“I think we’re capable of doing something very special as a team. We’ve got fantastic support staff behind us and great facilities at the National Curling Academy to help us along the way.
“We have to do what we can to make sure we’re in the best position to perform well and we’ll be making sure we do that.”
Two- time European champion Muirhead has enjoyed huge success down the years at a competition that holds a particular place in her affections, albeit she remains hungry for more.
“Personally, getting the chance to go back to the Europeans is really special,” Muirhead continued.
“For me it’s an event that kind of kicked off my curling career when I first medalled there. I think I’ve got nine medals at Europeans, with only two of them being gold, so that’s something I want to keep pushing for.
“With this group of people and this team that we’ve put together I do believe that we’re good enough to do very well at the Europeans and to step on that podium. We have a lot of potential.”
With the selection process now complete Muirhead is looking forward to working on the details that can make the difference within a group that claimed victory at The Masters in Basel last month and performed impressively on their only visit to Canada this season at the Autumn Gold Classic.
“Now that the team and coach (former world men’s champion Kristian
Lindström) have been selected it makes it a little bit easier to dive into the small parts that make you a better team,” Muirhead added.
“We’re no longer all fighting for positions and are settled within our roles, so it’s just a case of really gelling as a team and we’re planning on doing a lot of that ahead of the Europeans.
“This is the team that had great success in Basel. We won that tournament and went through the A road in the Autumn Gold Classic in Calgary which is a top class event. We have a lot under our belts already, but I also believe we’ve got a lot more to come as well and a lot to give.”