Muirhead’s improvement continues

Courier columnist Eve Muirhead is clearly on the way back despite failing to reach last night’s World Cup final in Omaha, Nebraska.

The Perthshire curler returned from May hip surgery in October and struggled at last month’s European Championships, where she missed out on a medal for the first time since 2009.

The former world champion and her team-mates Lauren Gray, Vicki Chalmers and Jennifer Dodds were more like their old selves in Omaha and beat Swedish Olympic champion Anna Hasselborg in Pool B.

Hasselborg won Saturday’s rematch to eliminate the Scots, but they returned yesterday to hand Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa her first loss of the week. Muirhead and company won 5-2 to avenge their Olympic bronze medal play-off defeat and post their fourth victory in six group games.

“That was a great win and left us second in our pool,” said Muirhead, who aims to build further momentum at this week’s Grand Slam tournament in Newfoundland.

Meanwhile, Michele Jaeggi dominated yesterday’s all-Swiss final at the City of Perth International, a title won by Muirhead in 2016 (see page 41). She beat her fellow Swiss Irene Schori 7-2 in the final.