MOUAT’S MEN MISS OUT AFTER CLASSIC OLYMPIC FINAL GOES TO EXTRA END

Five-time World Champions Team Edin achieved their ultimate target of a gold medal in Beijing’s Ice Cube, but only after fending off Team GB’s current World No.1 ranked side as Bruce Mouat and his men fought all the way to take the Olympic final to an extra end before succumbing to their opponents’ relentless accuracy.

Early errors by the British team had negated their advantage of going into the match with the hammer, but a steal at the sixth end brought them back on terms and made the Swedes work to the last before their skip’s last desperate attempt at the extra end slid just wide which meant Niklas Edin did not have to play his last shot as his side ran out 5-4 winners.

It was a cruel end to a magnificent campaign for Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan, but they could take solace in knowing they had finally got Team GB onto the medal table on the penultimate day of a Games that has seen their skip in action almost every day since the Mixed Doubles event got underway two days before the Opening Ceremony. 

Particularly for their skip since both of his campaigns had finished with defeats in his final match, but this time he claimed a silver medal, rather than having to suffer the pain of missing out altogether as he and Jen Dodds had in the Mixed Doubles bronze medal match.

“It’s pretty raw and I think that’s going to be the case for quite a while, but I’m just trying to think about how good our week was, coming top of the table and putting in a good semi-final performance,” he said.

“I feel pretty proud of myself and proud of my guys as well. I just don’t know how to describe the feelings right now and down the line eventually I’ll feel pretty good about this medal. I’m just trying to soak it all in right now.”

The mutual respect between the teams that have contested the World Championship, European Championship and now Olympic finals within the last year was clear however and vice skip Hardie acknowledged the achievement of their opponents.

“Losing in the final is going to sting for a while. Losing in any final does, but this one’s going to take a little bit longer. You need to give those guys a lot of credit, especially the pressure Niklas was under having not won that gold until today and they played amazing.

“We’ve raised the bar over the last year and teams now know they have to play one of their best games to beat us. That’s what’s earned them the gold medal.”

The Swedes played a sound opening end, getting separation between stones in the house and forcing Mouat to draw for one with his final stone and they made the text book start for a team starting without the hammer as they effectively reversed that advantage by setting things up well to allow Edin to make an easy takeout to score their two at the second.

An extraordinary raise double by Mouat looked to have upped the ante at the third end, but Edin responded with a hit and roll which removed one of the counting British shot stones and moved the other far enough to leave the Swedes lying two, giving the British shot a tough draw to the button and he failed to move the Swedish stone far enough off the button.

A delicately precise hit and roll at the fourth saw Edin apply further pressure and he guarded well with his last, but a powerful piece of sweeping by McMillan and Lammie dragged Mouat’s final stone draw just close enough to avoid the steal.

A blanked fifth end meant the Swedes looked to be holding all the aces as they headed into the second half with a 3-2 lead and the potential to be scoring on the even ends and a brilliant triple takeout by their second, Rasmus Wrana, put them in full control at the sixth and rather than increase their advantage they opted to blank again to reduce the number of opportunities their opponents would have to score.

Eriksson finally left a glimmer of an opening when he left an attempted draw around cover at the seventh end slightly open and Hardie seized on it to draw onto the button, well-guarded. The Swedish vice skip responded, by following his stone down to leave his stone corner frozen, setting up the prospect of Edin promoting it onto it with his skip stones, but Mouat guarded it perfectly with both his shots and the steal levelled the scores at 3-3.

Mouat then forced a single at the eighth end when he played onto a British stone that was frozen onto a Swedish stone in the house and achieved the takeout, while getting sufficient separation between his stones to prevent the Swedish skip from making the double takeout.

Hardie then showed nerves of steal at the ninth end when, faced with a dangerously skinny double to set up the chance for his team to blank the end and retain the hammer down the last.

As the tension built, Hardie once again rose to the challenge, when facing four Swedish stones in the house, producing a perfect hit and roll to lie shot, hidden behind guards however, facing his destiny, Edin then produced a magnificent response to promote his own stone onto it to lie four once again.

Mouat then drew around it to give Edin the chance to make an error, but he was up to the challenge, again raising one of his own stones onto it.

It was the British skip’s turn to face the pressure and Mouat duly drew onto the button to level the scores at 4-4 and take the match down an extra end, which was an apt ending to this high class clash of the two finest teams in world curling, the five time World Champions and the current World number one ranked team.

It was always going to come down to the skips’ final stones and Edin left Mouat the slimmest of chances when, with one Swedish stone sitting on the button, he left his first effort four feet short of it, but it was enough of an obstacle to force Mouat into attempting to come off one of their guards with an attempted angled takeout and he came close, but when it ran marginally wide it was the Swedes who were crowned champions.

“We put this team together four and half five years ago to stand on top of that podium and the way we’ve performed over the last 18 months we felt like we could have done that, we just fell a little bit short today,” said lead McMillan.

“They came out firing and we weren’t on top of our game in the first half. We played a really, really good second half to give us a chance coming home, we just couldn’t take it.”

Lammie paid full tribute to their opponents, however.

“Obviously he’s had the bronze and silver before and was looking for that gold. We were hoping to be the ones to stop him getting that, but I would say after their performance today they’re deserving of their medal. He’s had some career and won it all now.”

He had, however, claimed the title at the skip’s fourth time of asking, whereas the task now facing this all-Olympic debutant British team is to regroup, as the Swedes had to do after losing the final four years ago and set their sights on the long road to the next Winter Olympics in Cortina in 2026.

“This definitely drives us forward. We’ve put in so much hard work over the last five years and we can’t thank enough The National Lottery and all the work British Curling’s put in for us,” said Mouat.

“That’s going to continue hopefully and we’ll be driving harder to get that gold medal next time.

“Niklas has had such an impressive career, one of the best in curling history. He is an example of what we can do in four years time and we have to hope we can all get to this point again and maybe make the result different next time.” 

He meanwhile placed what they have done in the last Olympic cycle into perspective.

“The first event we played in was over in Canada and we didn’t really know what to expect because we were ranked about 40 or 50 in the world or something then we came out and won it and didn’t lose a game in Canada for two weeks, winning 14 straight matches,” said the skip.

“I think that was what put it in our minds that this is a great team and we’re going to achieve a lot, but we have to put the hard work in. That’s exactly what we did for four years, to get to this point. I’m very proud of all of them and Ross (Whyte, their alternate) who came into the team a couple of years later. I can’t thank all of them enough for this medal I’ve got hanging around my neck.”

And in expressing gratitude for the backing they have had from across Britain, he said he hoped their efforts had promoted their sport.

“It’s very special to have the support we’ve had from back home. To have messages from so many people, including the royal family is a great compliment,” he said.

“We’re always here to encourage people to take up curling, so if that’s happened at all we’ve done a good job.

“I hope curling takes off across Great Britain. I’d love to see ice rinks across the entire nation, not just in Scotland, taking part with participation levels going up in England and Wales, but also in Scotland as well."

Results
GB (w) - Switzerland 5-6 (EE)
GB (M) - Italy 7-5
GB (w) - Sweden 8-2