Scot hopes to be on top of the world lost for words
BRUCE MOUAT is fast approaching one of the biggest weeks of his career. At the end of this month, the World Curling Championships will begin in Glasgow and the 25-year-old is hoping to have a tournament he will never forget.
Mouat is in the form of his life, describing his Scottish Championship victory last month as “one of the best events I’ve ever played”.
Such good form bodes well for the World Championships and with just three weeks to go, there is little in terms of major changes that can be made by Mouat and his rink of Bobby Lammie, Hammy MacMillan and Grant Hardie. However, he is confident that minor tweaks are all that is required to make sure they are at their best when they begin their campaign at the Emirates Arena.
“Hopefully the form we’ve had in the last four or five events will continue,” Mouat said.
“How I played at the Scottish Championships exceeded my own expectations. I was really solid and my team played really well too so we’re excited to see how we can do come the Worlds.
“It’s coming round really fast but we’re working had to make sure we’re fully prepared for when the event starts.
“We’ll be preparing for this one the same way we prepare for every World Championships, We’ll spend the next three weeks finetuning if they reach the latter stages of the event, he also knows he and his rink are likely to need to focus on grinding out results at some point throughout the week.
“Consistency is so important. If we can get some consistency early on in the week, we can build some momentum and that’s vital with so many games,” the Edinburgh man said.
“A huge part of it is learning how to win when you’re not playing your best because you’re not going to be able to play brilliantly every single time.
“It’s getting those small margins right so you can turn potential losses into wins.”
These World Championships will be Mouat’s third but he has yet to tick off his biggest goal. The Winter Olympics in 2022 are not that far away and with Mouat desperate to complete the set of major championship medals in Beijing, there would be no better way to set themselves up for that Olympic tilt than winning a world title on home ice.
“I feel like my best is still to come. We’re young and we’ve done well but we still haven’t achieved our main goal which is an Olympic medal,” Mouat said.
“I really hope that we can make it to the Olympics and a gold medal in Glasgow would be a nice stepping stone. It would be a dream come true to win a gold medal at the World Championships and for it to happen in Glasgow would be unbelievable, I don’t think I’d be able to put into words how I’d feel if that happened.”