Muirhead’s rink better prepared than ever

Eve Muirhead will get her Olympic season under way at the Grand Slam of Curling tour event in Regina, Canada today.

In their first competitive outing since they earned their Team GB selection for Pyeongchang, the skip and her Sochi bronze medallist teammates, Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams, Lauren Gray and Kelly Schafer, feel they have never been better prepared at the start of their competition schedule, which sees them face some of the best teams in the world from the outset.

Muihead’s rink will continue their Canadian campaign by returning to Edmonton after the Grand Slam event for the HDF Shoot out.

She said: “After kicking off the on-ice training season in the best possible way at the newly-opened National Curling Academy (NCA), our preparation for the coming season has been one of the best I have ever experienced and I know I can vouch for all of the team as well.

“Our first competition of the year is straight in at the deep end playing in a Grand Slam event in Regina. The tour challenge is a strong field with the top 15 ranked teams in the world order of merit.”

Muirhead’s team is one of four rinks representing Scottish hopes at the Grand Slam event.

They are joined by Kyle Smith’s rink of fellow Team GB Winter Olympic representatives who will also be competing in the Tier 1 event in the men’s tournament.

Alternate Glen Muirhead will be off the bench, getting the chance to compete against the rink skipped by four-time world champion Glenn Howard, who is also Muirhead’s tactical coach.

Thomas Muirhead, Kyle Waddell and Cammy Smith make up the team.

In the Tier 2 women’s event, Hannah Fleming’s rink, made up of Jennifer Dodds, Vicky Wright and Alice Spence, will be making their season debut.

Skip Greg Drummond is joined by Ross Paterson, Gregor Cannon and Michael Goodfellow in a new-look rink in the Tier 2 men’s event.