More agony for Scots as bronze hopes crushed in extra end
BRUCE MOUAT has admitted that he and his team- mates will need time to lick their wounds after the loss of their title was exacerbated by a cruel extra end defeat in the bronze medal game at the LGT World Men’s Curling Championships in Switzerland.
Beaten by Canada in their semifinal the previous evening, the Scottish quartet of Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan looked to have regrouped well as they dominated the first nine ends of their third place play- off against world No. 1- ranked Italy to take a 6- 3 lead into the last of the scheduled 10 ends.
However, it all went wrong when the Scottish skip’s attempt at a raised takeout with his final stone at the 10th end failed to remove the targeted Italian stone at the back of the house, leaving his opposite number Joel Retornaz with a relatively straightforward tap back to score a three and level the match at 6- 6.
The Italians then managed to create favourable angles for themselves as stones gathered around the button at the extra end and when Retornaz played a delicate raised tap back to nudge Scotland’s counting stone off the centre of the button and claim the upper hand, Mouat was unable to get his team out of trouble, his attempt at a hit and roll with his final stone narrowly failing to remove the Italian shot.
“We’re finding this pretty tough,” said Mouat, following the 7- 6 loss.
“We’re proud to have got to another semi- final of a Championship, but this one’s going to sting for a while.”
The Scottish skip typically accepted full responsibility for their failure to retain the title they had been so proud to win for the first time in 2023.
“We’re used to coming to Championships and playing well in the play- off stages,” said Mouat.
“I feel like we did play well, but there were just a few misses from myself.”
He and his team- mates could take some solace from having once again demonstrated their consistency at the highest level.
This was the 10th time they had been selected for Scotland or Team GB at the major Championships – Olympics, Worlds and Europeans – the 10th time they had reached the play- offs and just the second time they had failed to come home with a medal.
As Mouat noted, amidst ferocious competition that had seen hosts Switzerland fail to reach the play- offs having topped the round- robin standings a year ago, they have also taken a major step towards ensuring that Team GB will be represented in the men’s event at the Winter Olympics in Milan- Cortina in 2026.
“I’m glad that we were at least able to get some [ Olympic qualifying] points for Team GB and putting them in a good spot,” he said.
“We’ll see how the final rankings look after next year’s competition, but we’ve given it a decent chance.”
Mouat knows there is still work to be done if his men are to return to the Olympics where they won a silver medal two years ago, but reckons the excruciating nature of their world title loss can fuel their efforts.
“Hopefully we can use this to drive ourselves forward for the next couple of years and get back to the Olympics,” he said.
The world title was ultimately won by Sweden, who had suffered their only defeat of the round- robin to Scotland in topping the standings and whose skip Niklas Edin extended his all- time record haul to seven titles following his team’s 6- 5 defeat of Canada’s Team Gushue in the final.