GB blow curling medal as Muirhead goes for glory

EVE MUIRHEAD was utterly certain about her future but was left in an angry haze about her immediate past yesterday as she contemplated the blunder that allowed a bronze medal to get away.

The 5-3 defeat by Japan was truly self-inflicted, with Muirhead dropping a clanger in the 10th end at 4-3 down.

As she prepared to deliver the final stone, she had already done enough to win the end by one and force an extra session. But in trying to snatch an extra point, she knocked her best stone beyond Japan’s.

Muirhead kicked a stone in anger as she faced up to the failure of the £5.6m curling By Riath Al-Samarrai programme to meet its target of one medal.

‘It’s hard to say we are going home with nothing,’ said Muirhead, 27. ‘We battled hard but I’m devastated we’re going home without a medal. Gutted.

‘Every game you lose is hard. This time around it is very hard. It’s really difficult to reflect on it just now. I had the chance and it didn’t come off.

‘Unfortunately I just needed it to curl another centimetre and I had it. But that’s curling. Curling comes down to the inch and unfortunately we were on the wrong side of it. I’m absolutely gutted.’

Asked about the responsibility of being skip, with the intimation that she might step down, she said: ‘I absolutely love being skip. It’s what I do. It’s my job. You’re a tactician out there, you call the shots and I love my job.

‘The Olympics is something I dream about every day. I would love to be able to come back for another.’

It was a bitter setback for the team, which includes Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Lauren Gray.

Sloan said: ‘In an Olympic Games, they always say that fourth place is the worst place to be. It’s raw and it’s hurting right now. Sometimes you are on the wrong side of the inch.’