The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
GB knock out champs.
Perthshire curling ace one win away from Olympic final after seeing off favourites Canada
Perthshire curler Eve Muirhead helped book Great Britain’s place in the Winter Olympics semi-finals after a thrilling 6-5 win over favourites and defending champions Canada yesterday.
Eve Muirhead dumped curling powerhouses Canada out of the Olympics – with a little help from her Canadian coach.
The Team GB skip from Blair Atholl produced a succession of stunning shots to book herself a place in tomorrow’s semi-finals and is now just one win from upgrading her bronze from four year ago.
But the 6-5 win condemned defending Olympic and world champions canada to the exit, something close to a national tragedy in a country where curling is a religion.
“The last few days we’ve been getting better and better and it’s all about building momentum for when it matters, these are the matches where we’ll be judged,” said Courier columnist Muirhead.
“Canada are a top nation but curling is a global sport now and any one of these team are capable of getting a medal.
“It’s not really for me to comment about Canada, all we can do is concentrate on our performance. Our aim was to book that semi-final slot and we’ve shown a lot of determination and patience and we’re in a good place.
“We loved playing under pressure, we thrive at this level and we’ve been here before. We won’t panic and we’ll stay focused and clinical.”
After the victory, Britain’s coach Glenn Howard saw the word ‘traitor’ temporarily added to his Wikipedia page, as Canadians couldn’t understand why the four-time world champion was on the wrong side.
Muirhead’s rink started their campaign slowly but are now unbeaten in three matches, the perfect response to defeat from fellow semi-finalist Korea and Sweden, the latter now standing between them and the final.
“There’s no split loyalties for me. I’ve got GB on my tracksuit and that’s the only team that I care about,” said Howard.
“I wish it didn’t come down to us putting Canada out, I struggled with that, but in the grand scheme of things that was my job.”
Canada have never finished off an Olympic curling podium since the sport was reintroduced to the Games in 1998 – four years ago they won both men’s and women’s gold medals in Sochi.
Muirhead lost the semi-final in Sochi to Canada four years ago, only to rebound just hours later to secure bronze.
She still labels that loss the toughest and most sobering of her career but this time the Canadians won’t be around to inflict it.
“The last few days we’ve been getting better and better and it’s all about building momentum for when it matters, these are the matches where we’ll be judged,” said Muirhead.
“Our aim was to book that semi-final slot and we’ve shown a lot of determination and patience and we’re in a good place.
“We loved playing under pressure, we thrive at this level and we’ve been here before. We’ll stay focused and clinical.”
But Korea’s self-styled Garlic Girls – named after their garlic-producing hometown – are now the ones to beat.
Curling’s equivalent of a K-pop sensation, their nicknames are Yogurt, Pancake, Steak, Cookie and Sunny.
“I’ve not been surprised by them,” insisted Muirhead.
“They’ve been a good team for a while and they’ve got all that home support. They beat us in the round robin and we’ll have to lift our game if we play them again.
“The get the crowd very excited and it’s a great atmosphere to play in, even if it makes communicating hard.”
Meanwhile, Great Britain’s men’s curling team face a play-off – to be played in the early hours of today UK time – for a place in the semi-finals after crashing to defeat against the United States.
The men – skipped by Perth’s Kyle Smith – knew a win would be enough to send them straight through to the last four but a poor display saw them submit to a 10-4 defeat after just eight ends.
The result left Great Britain in a three-way tie for third place, with the Americans sent through on account of their better head-to-head record between the three teams.
Smith said: “We didn’t create enough chances and they were sharper than us.
“The ice was running a bit quicker today than it has in the last couple of games and I certainly wasn’t sharp enough on that and missed a few slack ones.
“We’ve still got a chance of making the semis so it’s kind of the same situation we were in today – win and we’re in – so we’ll be back and we’ll be playing better.”
Team GB’S ladies semi-final will be live on the BBC and Eurosport 2 at 11am tomorrow. Don’t miss a moment of the Games at Eurosport.co.uk