BRITS ARE EDIN HOME WITH SILVER
From ALEX SPINK in Beijing
BRITAIN were not in the mood to celebrate their first Winter Olympic medal after their golden dream was shot down by a former tank commander.
Bruce Mouat’s curling team took silver after losing 5-4 in a final billed as the “clash of the titans” by Sweden’s five-time world champion skip Niklas Edin.
Edin, who spent 10 months as a tank commander in the Swedish army, showed why he is the best in the business by rolling over the Brits in the first extra end. It left Mouat,
Hammy McMillan, Bobby Lammie and Grant Hardie cursing the one that got away – though it still gave Team GB their first medal on the penultimate day of these Games.
The curlers went on to make it two overnight through Eve Muirhead’s rink in the women’s final, to leave performance director Nigel Holl proud as punch. He said: “We came here with three potential medal hopes, we delivered in two of those and came very close in the third, so we’ve done our bit.
“We ran into a Sweden side playing hot, hot curling but I’m incredibly proud of our guys and their performance. They’ll be proud too in time to come.”
McMillan said: “Right now it kind of sucks. It’s not how we wanted to end it.”
The Scottish quartet had come into the final as topranked qualifiers and with a message of good luck from the Royal Family. They led after the first end but never again, needing one in the last to force the extra end where Edin was waiting to finish them off.
“Niklas is maybe the best in curling history, but he is also an example of what we can do in four years’ time,” said Mouat.
Andrew Musgrave was raging after the 50km cross-country skiing discipline he had moved to Norway to prepare for, was cut to 30km due to wind and extreme cold.
“What a f**king joke!” tweeted the Brit, who eventually finished 12th. “I don’t see that will make it any warmer or less windy – 50km is meant to be the ultimate endurance race and it wasn’t quite the same.”