Curling needs video replays

It was a decision that puzzled and infuriated supporters and could even cost Team GB a Winter Olympic medal. Great Britain’s women’s curling suffered an agonising defeat to Sweden in the final end after being rocked by a controversial decision. With the game running into an extra end, GB skip Eve Muirhead was ruled not to have released her final stone before the hot line. With the GB stone void, the Swedes went on to win. A chip inside the stone detected a foul, yet TV replays cast doubt on that. The use of tracking chips inside curling stones was supposed to remove all doubt over such decisions, but this prompts the question of whether video playback is required as well. There is, of course, something reassuringly familiar to the result of the match. That story of defeat seized from the jaws of victory is in our DNA. But it will have been devastating for Muirhead and her team whose world-beating skills were fully on display until that game-changing ruling. For their sake – and in the name of fair play – all the available technology should be used so that correct decision can be reached.