Mouat has his shot at glory and is ready to go for gold

WITH a roar and a clenched fist, Bruce Mouat and his curlers have achieved that rarest of things — a gold-medal shot for Team GB. These Winter Games have been wretched for British athletes but, 20 years on from Rhona Martin’s stone of destiny, fellow Scot Mouat has shifted the rock pinning them to a hard place. By beating defending champions USA 8-4, his team of Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan will face Sweden in the final in the early hours of tomorrow morning. ‘The last two weeks has been a bit of a rollercoaster,’ said Mouat, whose mixed-doubles medal bid faltered in the early part of the Olympics. ‘I’m just so excited to share this with the guys and that celebration at the end was pure elation. ‘I don’t think I can sum it up any other way.’ This was a thriller. Mouat’s rink was down after US skip John Shuster stole a two in the second end, but they hit back immediately with a three. They led 5-4 at halfway, before Mouat (right) landed a superb drawing single in the penultimate end to set up the finale.

When Shuster missed a miracle shot for two at the death, Team GB were guaranteed a medal, and avoided leaving Beijing empty-handed for the first time since 1992. There was also the dramatic progression of Eve Muirhead’s rink to the semis. Whereas Mouat’s team are on an eight-game winning streak, the women have limped to this point, but were strong in beating Russia 9-4. That was only part of their survival tale. They also needed three results to go their way, which they did. That was followed by the curling equivalent of goal difference — the draw stone average. With that in their favour by 10cm, Muirhead’s team were facing Sweden today. ‘We fought our hearts out, nothing was in our control apart from our own game and that’s what we did,’ said the Scot. There will also be a medal shot for Zoe Atkins, 19-year-old sister of Pyeongchang 2018 bronze medallist Izzie. She qualified fourth best for the freeski halfpipe and faces China’s Eileen Gu. Gus Kenworthy scraped into the men’s final. lTeam GB v Sweden: Tomorrow at 6.05am. LIVE on BBC Two.