MUIRHEAD’S WOMEN MATCH MEN BY REACHING OLYMPIC FINAL AFTER DRAMA PACKED SEMI

Eve Muirhead made it to her first Olympic final at her fourth attempt after an epic semi-final encounter with Sweden’s defending champions that was packed with high scoring ends and intense drama which was only decided after an extra end.

As millions at home held their breath, the British skip was spared the challenge of holding herself together to send down the stone she expected to have to deliver, when opposite number Anna Hasselborg’s attempt to maximise the pressure by freezing onto the shot stone that was just inside the eight foot towards the back of the house, came up marginally short.

It concluded an extraordinary recovery in a match that could have got away from them when they lost a four at the very first end and which they came close to throwing away after setting up what looked a decisive lead of three going into the 10th and final scheduled end.

Relief consequently intermingled with elation as Muirhead, Vicky Wright, Jennifer Dodds, Hailey Duff and their alternate Mili Smith leapt into one another’s arms as they realised they had matched Team GB’s men by reaching an Olympic final at the end of a match that both teams were entitled at different stages to believe they had won.

“Third time lucky,” said a gleeful Muirhead. 

“I’ve lost two semi-finals before and I was desperate for this, because these moments and opportunities don’t come around very often and I really was so, so proud of these girls.

“It’s such a team game out there and all week we’ve really dug so deep and not just at this event. We can’t thank Mili enough. She’s been our biggest supporter all week. As much as you don’t see so much of her, she’s up until about half past 12 or one o’clock at night matching stones and what goes on behind the scenes means such a lot.

“From the whole season, working as a squad of nine and then the Olympic qualifier. I’m pretty speechless right now, but what a moment. It sounds amazing to say we’re in an Olympic final.

Dodds was also looking for some personal redemption after the agony of her semi-final defeat in the Mixed Doubles semi-final and bronze medal playoff with Bruce Mouat.

“That just summed up our team so well,” Dodds said of the way they rallied from their early setback.

“We are just so good at grinding out there, keeping on going and going and never giving up and I’m so proud.

“I’m so proud. None of us put our heads down, we all rallied round each other and that is such an important part of curling.

“It’s supporting your teammates and through this whole season, being in a squad season, switching teams, you just had to learn how to support people so quickly and I think we’ve done that so well with this five.”

Looking understandably nervous, with the front-end pair of Duff and Dodds making a string of uncharacteristic errors, the British women were in trouble early and while Wright almost got them out of it with two fine double takeouts, their skip was off target with two attempted draws, allowing Anna to make an easy draw for a four.

“We just thought, here we go, buckle up, but we knew we could pull it out of the bag and when you go behind you’ve just got to for it,” said Wright.

“We did that, stuck to our processes, made a lot of shots, put the pressure on Sweden and got there in the end.”

It was a worrying scoreline, but they undid much of the damage immediately, as Sara McManus, the Swedish vice skip made an error with an attempted takeout and this time Hasselborg compounded the mistake, removing just one of three British shots with her attempted double takeout and leaving Muirhead with a straightforward takeout for a three.

“The aim at that second end was two get a two, so a three was an absolute bonus,” said Dodds.

“We knew it was going to be tough, but I think I did say after that first end that if we were going to lose a four that was the place to lose it.”

The Swedes then attempted to play an extremely negative third end, but a clever first shot by Muirhead, leaving her first stone in the rings, but close to another stone lying just outside them saw Hasselborg’s attempt to remove jam and stay in, ultimately resulting in a force and a much more manageable 5-3 scoreline at the start of the fourth end. 

The Swedish skip made some amends there when her takeout with her final shot left Muirhead with no choice but to draw for one, but after a well-managed fifth end by Team GB, she was left with a tricky tap back to remove a British stone from the button with her last and put it wide, allowing the steal that levelled the scores at the midway break.

Sweden still had the advantage of hammer as the match resumed and made it count by getting their two at the sixth end, Muirhead just coming up half a stone light with her attempt to wrap her final stone around the two Swedish counters close to the button, allowing Hasselborg to take it out.

However, it was all square again after Hasselborg narrowly failed to remove two British stones with a double takeout attempt at the seventh, albeit Muirhead was indebted to Duff and Dodds for some superb sweeping to carry her final draw just far enough.

With a cluttered house for the skips to negotiate, the eighth end came down to the tightest of angles, Muirhead doing just enough with her last to make Hasselborg’s attempt to create a two by promoting the shortest of her stones into the pack as difficult as possible and she narrowly failed, having to settle for a single and an 8-7 lead.

It then looked as if Team GB had completed the perfect comeback with a brilliant ninth end as they gradually out-manoeuvred their opponents at another congested end until Muirhead was left with the chance to deliver the promotion shot that left them lying four.

However, the drama was only to intensify as the Swedes showed why they were the defending champions, Hasselborg taking her turn to finish the end with a superb promotion shot with her last which removed the two British stones that were sitting inside the four foot and claim the three that took the match to extra time.

It was a very different affair after two outstanding tick shots at the start of the end by Duff demonstrated the importance of quality lead play, ensuring that the route to the centre stayed open and forcing the Swedes to play to the wings, with it looking throughout as if Muirhead was going to have to hold herself together and make that final shot, before Hasselborg made that final, fateful error.

“Luckily I made the ticks which makes the team’s shots easier but they still have to make the shots,” said Duff.

The 25-year-old, who was the newcomer to the otherwise established team this season admitted that they had to work to control their emotions after looking as if they had done enough with that four at the ninth end.

“There was a little bit of an adrenaline rush when we got the four at the ninth, but we knew we really had to focus and make sure we got the win ,” she said.

Smith meanwhile summed up the mood of the watching nation when she observed, with a laugh: “That was the most stressful game of curling I have ever watched… but it was controlled.”

With a medal now guaranteed their skip is determined that they now prepare properly for that one last effort.

“We’ve got tomorrow off, so we’ll be her to support the boys tomorrow and after their game we need to just knuckle down and get back to our flat and focus on that one game to go, because in that final no one likes going away with the silver medal, so believe you me we’ll fight hard for the gold,” said Muirhead.