WINTER OLYMPICS
L Muirhead’s rink are just one game away from golden shootout after win over Canadians
And so curling races into view, the game of stones threatening to rub alongside the Six Nations and cup-final football at the top of the weekend sporting agenda in Britain.
Team GB are one match from a golden shootout after uber cool skipper Eve Muirhead jettisoned favourites Canada with her “pistol shot” in the final round robin encounter.
Muirhead now has Sweden in her sights knowing victory in tomorrow’s semi-final will place her on the shoulder of Scottish compatriot and curling cult hero Rhona Martin, who won gold for Britain at the 2002 games in Lake Placid with the last play of the match, her “stone of destiny”.
Muirhead’s own epic throwdown came at the ninth of ten ends when, with her final shot, she cleaned out two sitting Canadian stones to set up the chance of glory in the last end, which was duly taken.
“That was the big shot and it kind of turned the tables, a little bit. As a skip, I guess these are the shots you have to make. Really pleased it came off, and to book ourselves in the semifinal at the Olympic Games is really special. When I threw it, I was just hoping it was going to come off and the angles were going to work out.”
Muirhead’s launch was followed by an instinctive, involuntary leap, about which she
0 Great Britain skip Eve Muirhead makes a call during her rink’s 6-5 victory over favourites Canada in the final round robin encounter. has no recollection. “People keep talking to me about this jump, but I can’t actually remember it. All I’m glad about is that I landed safely on two feet.”
Now we know why Mr T gets it. The rink action is made for metaphor, the slow, strategic nature of the sequencing often leading to explosive finales when the hammer – a colloquial term to describe the last stone of an end, decides the piece.
After a hefty opening victory against the Russians by another name, the British quartet of Muirhead, Vicky Adams, Lauren Gray and Anna Sloan struggled for consistency, with the skipper attracting some stick particularly following defeats to the USA and Korea.
A feature of the curling scene is the Loctite quality of the team bond. Never is there even a suspicion of reproach or recrimination when things go wrong. The value of that could be seen in the improving quality of the shots under pressure with Muirhead nailing the big shots with increasing assurance.
“As a team, we’ve got a very strong unit, and if you can have as much support within each other and learn from each other, you do well. I’ve played with these girls for many, many years, and sometimes we do get sick of each other, but we know what to do.”
Sweden are favourites to progress, but then so were Canada, to whom Britain lost in the semis in Sochi.
“It’s my second Olympic semifinal,” Muirhead said. “I guess I learned a lot last time, dropping that to Canada. But we’ve managed to beat them here. Whoever we’re up against, we know that when it comes to play-offs, we are a strong team. We always step it up.”
While Muirhead’s rink will have a day off today, Britain’s men were due to meet Switzerland in a play-off in the early hours of this morning after slipping to a 10-4 defeat against the USA. Kyle Smith’s men knew a win over the Americans would be enough to send them straight through to the last four but a poor display saw them beaten after just eight ends.
The result left Great Britain in a three-way tie for third place, with the USA sent through on account of their better head-tohead record between the three teams.
Smith, pictured, 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.”