Scots are silver stars in wheelchair curling
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A stunning second half of the week earned Scotland a silver medal at the World Wheelchair Curling Championships which were held at The PEAK.
Five consecutive wins - three in the round robin and two knockout matches - saw them into the final against reigning Paralympic champions China.
But it was a step too far for Aileen Neilson’s rink who went down 5-2 to claim their first world title.
The Chinese had been the top qualifiers from the round robin stages and they claimed a narrow lead early on in the decider, when they registered a single at the second end then followed that up with a steal at the next.
Despite a few opportunities for the hosts, the rink skipped by Wang Haitao established a 5-2 lead going into the last of the eight ends, where they were able to run the Scots out of stones.
For home skip Aileen Neilson and her team mates David Melrose, Robert McPherson, Hugh Nibloe and alternate Gary Logan, who have been supported by the British Curling programme, it was an impressive finish after an inauspicious start to the week which had seen them lose their first two matches. It was also an improvement on their result when they won bronze back in 2017, after they had battled back from having been relegated to the World B Championships on their second attempt, though Neilson had hoped for the one colour missing from her world championship medal collection.
Competing in her ninth world championships, she said after claiming her second silver medal: “We had really high hopes ahead of the final of coming away with that gold medal. However after our start to the week if I had been offered a silver medal I would have been happy with that. Obviously finishing on a loss isn’t easy, but getting on the podium on home ice in front of all our supporters is fantastic.”
She added “They were worthy winners and they were probably the best team here this week, however we became more consistent as the week progressed and we did manage to make sure we were peaking in our performances at the end of the tournament.
“Overall, to have that gold medal experience and to have my second silver at a world champs and this time on home ice with lots of Scottish supporters, it doesn’t get much better than that. This silver medal is all the more special because of that and it is something that I will never forget.”
After eight round robin matches, Scotland’s chances of progressing hung by a thread but a crucial 5-4 win over Russia with a winning shot on the final end, gave them some hope.
On the final day of the round robin, a 9-3 win over Estonia in just six ends, lifted then to joint third place along with Korea and later in the day, another final end saw them come through 5-3 for outright third,
In Saturday’s qualification match against sixth-placed Slovakia, the game went all the way to an extra end before they won 7-6.
By the sixth end, having stolen points in three consecutive ends, Scotland had established a 6-2 lead but in the seventh, Slovakia’s fourth player Dusan Pitonak took advantage of a well-guarded house and a Scotland miss with their last stone, to make a draw into the house for three points. This brought Slovakia back within one point of the Scots.
And in the eighth end, with Slovakia having two counting stones in the house, Scotland were forced to make a hit and giveaway a steal of one point.
In the extra end, Scotland played a defensive end that paid off and skip Neilson didn’t need to play her last stone after Pitonak came up short.
In the semi-final against defending world champions Norway, the Scots held a 4-2 lead at the four-end break.
Shots were shared over the next three ends for a 6-3 Scottish lead and in the eighth, Norway had a chance to score the three points needed to force an extra end but skip Rune Lorentsen caught a guard, giving Scotland a steal of one for the 7-3 win that put them into the gold medal game.