Winning start by World Cup Scots
Stirling-based rinks catch the eye in Omaha
Scotland’s two Stirlingbased curling rinks have made solid starts in the second leg of the Curling World Cup in Omaha, Nebraska.
Fresh from their successful European gold medal winning campaign, Bruce Mouat’s team and last year’s European champions led by Eve Muirhead are in the USA playing in the event which was introduced earlier this season with the inaugural event staged in September in Suzhou, China.
Both teams train at the National Curling Academy based at the PEAK and on Wednesday, they made winning starts - the men defeating Canada 8-6 and the women easing to a 7-1 win over China.
Mouat’s rink took a short break from the ice following their recent maiden win at the European Curling Championships in Estonia, but it didn’t disrupt their form here in Nebraska.
Skip Mouat said afterwards: “We struggled in the first four ends but got a grip of the ice in the last four and started making some good shots.
“We have a lot of confidence. We played great at the Europeans and have had a bit of break since then. We’ve not been on the ice a lot and it was just about recovering. It was nice to get back on the ice and perform the way we did towards the end.”
Muirhead’s rink established an early advantage against China which they never looked like relinquishing and handshakes were exchanged after seven ends.
“It’s always really good to get off to a fast start,” said Eve Muirhead afterwards. “It’s my first World Cup and I absolutely love it.”
The format of the event sees the teams play each other twice in two round-robin sections with the winners of each section meeting in the final.
Yesterday (Thursday) the Scottish men were due to play USA and China, today (Friday) it’s another game against Canada and tomorrow (Saturday) USA and China are the opponents again.
The women’s team were due to meet Sweden yesterday, tomorrow they face Japan and China and tomorrow, Sweden and Japan are their adversaries.
Following the US event, the series moves on to Sweden in January, with winners from each stage plus hosts China taking part in the grand final in Beijing, in May.