The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Muirhead aims to take on world
No regrets over final stone shot as Perthshire curler focuses on Scottish play-offs
Great Britain curling skip Eve Muirhead is already focusing on World Championship glory despite the disappointment of missing out on a medal at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
The Blair Atholl athlete and her team of Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Lauren Gray return to action next weekend when they take on Scottish champion Hannah Fleming’s rink in a play-off in Perth to represent Scotland at the World Championships.
Team Muirhead lost 5-3 to Japan in a tense, tactical encounter at Gangneung Curling Centre on Saturday in the bronze medal play-off match.
The skip said: “I’ll do as much as I can to get Scotland on my back to go to the World Championships. And I know the rest of the team will be fighting hard as well.”
Eve Muirhead won’t have much time to dwell on defeat in the Olympic bronze medal match – she’s already got making amends at the World Championships in mind.
Next weekend her rink take on Scottish champion Hannah Fleming in a best of three play-off in Perth to represent Scotland at the World Championships, where she won bronze
She could be forgiven for wanting some time off but the unrelenting demands of the curling circuit, with big-money Grand Slam events still to come, doesn’t allow anyone to lick their wounds.
“We knew going into the Olympics we were going to have the world play-off,” she added.
“The World Championships in curling is a big competition, a big deal. I want to be back at the World Championships. I’ll be giving it my all next week to get there, of course
“I’ll do as much as I can to get Scotland on my back to go to the World Championships. And I know the rest of the team will be fighting hard as well.”
Meanwhile the European champion insisted she had no regrets about going for a final stone shot in the third place play-off with Japan.
Standing over the final stone at the end of a three-hour match that would most politely be termed as one for the purists, Muirhead had two options.
The easy one would have been to take a single and force an extra end without the advantage of the final stone.
She chose the tougher path – attempting to secure a double that would have won the match. It was a shot she’d make most times in training but under the glare, with pulse racing and palms sweating, she was just inches out.
“As skip, it’s me that misses the shot, but it’s a full-on team effort out there,” she said.
“Any other day I guarantee that shot would’ve come off but we’ve just been the wrong side of the inch. I absolutely love being skip, it’s what I do, there are no regrets. You’re a tactician out there, you call the shots and I love it.
“The shot was there for the game and as a skip you’re going to try to play that shot to win. Every game you lose is hard. This time around it is very hard. It’s really difficult to reflect on it just now.
“We gave it our all out there. As a team we battled to the very, very end. Unfortunately for me I had the chance and it didn’t come off. It’s going to take a bit of time to reflect.”
Muirhead was quickly consoled by team-mates Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Lauren Gray. There were tears but, in truth, this campaign has never really sparked into life.
“Fourth place is the worst place to be. It’s raw and it’s hurting right now,” said Sloan.
“It was there, we all saw the shot and we all liked the shot. It’s curling but it’s pretty tough to take right now. I felt that we were in a good position in that game, we were in control, but some shots didn’t work out.”
Coach Glenn Howard backed the decision to go for the match-winning shot.
“What I love is the fact we had a shot to win the game, which was exactly the way I said the tactics would play in the whole game,” Howard said.