After starting the day facing a must-win match against perennial favourites Canada, Team GB’s Callie Soutar and Ethan Brewster showed supreme composure at the final ends of both that match and their quarter-final with Germany to earn a placed in the Mixed Doubles medal matches at the Winter Youth Olympics in Korea.
With four teams still in contention for play-off places when the day began, the Scottish teenagers knew exactly what they had to do after Czechia beat hosts Korea to finish the round-robin section on four wins and one defeat. 
Both Canada and Team GB had only lost one match at that point, so having beaten Czechia earlier in the week, Soutar and Brewster knew that victory would leave them top of the pool, but defeat would mean they missed out on a quarter-final spot.
In keeping with the long history of rivalry between the two nations, it was a tense affair throughout, with the lead changing hands four times in the course of the eight ends.
The Canadians looked to have made a decisive move when they held the Team GB pair to just a single point on their powerplay at the sixth end, before scoring two on their own powerplay to move into a 6-4 lead heading down the final end.
However, a well set up end gave Soutar the chance to secure a three and the win with her final stone and the youngest member of the Team GB curling squad seized that opportunity.
By contrast, they were never headed in their quarter-final against Germany later in the day, but when their opponents scored two on their powerplay at the seventh end to close the margin to 6-5 there was the potential for it to become nervy again, only for Soutar to wrap things up once again with her final stone, drawing praise from her partner.
“It was a perfect final end against Canada,” said Brewster.
“Every shot was placed pretty much where we wanted it to be and Callie made a perfect shot for the win.
“Then in the quarter-final against Germany, we just kept the middle open, peeled guards the whole end, leaving Callie with an easy nose hit for the win, so it was pretty comfortable, but she still had to make that shot.”
For her part, the 15-year-old was pleased with the way they dealt with the change of pressure once the competition went into knockout mode.
“We felt like we were in control pretty much all through the game,” said Soutar.
“We were managing to get twos and limiting them to ones, which was a great way to build the scoreline and then we played a good last end to seal the win.”
While their remaining matches will decide whether they win a medal and, if so, what colour, they are simply determined to keep doing what has been working well ahead of their semi-final meeting with Sweden.
“We just need to keep playing how we’ve been playing and just stay focused for the game tomorrow morning,” said Soutar. 
“We’ve been playing pretty well, so we’ll just look to carry that form into the semi-final and maintain momentum.”
Day 1
GB – Nigeria 15-0
Day 2
GB – Korea 2-11
Day 3
GB – Czechia 8-3
Day 4
GB – Hungary 8-4
Day 5
GB – Canada 7-6
Quarter Final
GB – Germany 7-5
Day 6
Semi Final
GB – Sweden
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Images: Team GB - Sam Mellish
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