TEAM GB WOMEN HOLD NERVE TO SQUEEZE INTO SEMIS

Team GB flag bearer Eve Muirhead will once again contest the medal matches at her fourth Winter Olympics after a dramatic last round of women’s curling matches in Beijing’s Ice Cube.

The outcome ultimately came down to a contest unseen by television viewers, with an average of team’s performances in the pre-match Draw Shot Challenge, held to decide which team earns the right to last stone advantage at the first end of round-robin matches, used as a tie-break mechanism if more than two teams are on the same number of wins and cannot be split on the basis of head-to-head results.

Muirhead and teammates Vicky Wright, Jen Dodds and Hailey Duff had gone into their meeting with Russia knowing that they had to win their match and see at least two other matches go their way.

And after wins for Switzerland and Sweden over fellow contenders Japan and Korea, it was legendary Canadian Jennifer Jones, the 2014 Olympic champion, whose team cruelly missed out on the basis of an inferior draw shot challenge across the week’s competition.

Having beaten the Russians with an end to spare, while Switzerland had similarly seen off Japan in nine ends, they had to wait to discover their fate, as Sweden’s clash with Korea went the distance.

For Dodds, who narrowly missed out on a medal in the Mixed Doubles, where she and Bruce Mouat finished fourth, it was a particularly agonising wait. 

“I don’t think any of us could really watch the screen and even once Anna (Hasselborg, Sweden’s skip) had played her last shot we couldn’t really see where it was, so we weren’t 100 per cent sure until we got it confirmed. It was more of a relief than anything else,” she said.

While they had gone into their last match as heavy favourites against the team that was bottom of the round-robin table, up against opponents who could relax in the knowledge they had nothing to lose, the British women had to focus on their own job in hand before they could start looking at what was happening elsewhere.

They made the ideal start, winning the hammer and that last stone advantage at the opening end and making that count as a result of a classic skip’s double as Muirhead produced two perfect draws, the first frozen onto what had previously been the Russian shot stone inside the four foot and the second around an awkwardly placed Russian stone at the top of the four foot.

They maintained that two shot advantage to the fifth end thanks to a series of forces and then made their next telling move at the first end after the midway break, when Russian skip Alina Kovaleva missed a takeout attempt with the final stone, leaving Muirhead’s on the button and counting for a steal.

The match was by no means over at that stage and after being forced to take just one at the seventh, the Russians claimed a steal of their own at the eighth to close to within a shot at 5-4, but Muirhead wrapped things up brilliantly, firing her last stone at the ninth end through a port to take out the solitary opposition stone in the house and score the four that drew the concession.

Afterwards, the skip admitted that it had been difficult not to be distracted by what was happening on the other sheets.

“I knew that our first job was to beat Russia this morning. That was our first priority and that’s what I I gave everything to,” said Muirhead.

“It’s very hard to concentrate fully for three hours, however, so I’m not going to lie, I had one eye looking across at the other games.

“I hope I didn’t show that, but you’re always going to keep an eye on things when you know it’s going to get you into the Olympic semi-final spots.

While logic had decreed that there was a strong possibility of things going their way, there was natural apprehension.

“We knew we needed three results. If you looked on paper it was all the top ranked teams that had to win, so it was more than an outside chance that was going to happen, but of course when we woke up this morning I had nerves the same as every other morning and I’m sure the girls did as well,” said Muirhead.

“We had a good chat with our coach last night, though, about how we were going to go into this game and it worked very well, so we’ll do exactly the same tonight to work out how we’re going to play Sweden in the semi-final.” 

While the Swedes finished above Team GB in the standings, the British women can draw confidence from having beaten the reigning Olympic champions earlier in this competition, as well as twice at this season’s European Championships on their way to winning that title, but Muirhead dismissed any reliance on past deeds. 

“We’ve beaten them the last three times we’ve played them, but who cares about that, it’s tomorrow that really matters,” she said.

“We could have beaten them every single time we played them, but if we lose to them tomorrow it doesn’t matter, does it?

“We’ll go in tomorrow with as much focus as every other game. I know the team will do a fantastic job to get us there. We need to thank everyone, including The National Lottery, for getting us as far as this with our funding and all the support staff at home, British Curling and all our families and friends.”

While they required some help from elsewhere, Muirhead is in no doubt that she and her teammates had fully earned their opportunity.

“I wouldn’t put it down to luck,” she said.

“I thought we played very well out there today and Switzerland and Sweden did as well. For curling it’s fantastic to see three European teams in the playoffs. It doesn’t often happen, but I think it shows that European curling right now is very dominant.

“This team has got a lot of resilience. That’s one thing we’ve shown all season. We’ve come from a squad of nine people to a team that has won the Europeans and then qualified for the Olympic Games, to now reach the semi-finals of the Olympics and we’ve also got Jen in our team who made the semi-finals of the Mixed Doubles.

“I don’t think you can turn your back on this team. We’ve shown a lot of great character, a lot of grit and determination and I think we deserve this spot fully.”

On a personal level she is now determined to improve on what happened in Korea four years ago, when her team finished fourth and even go a step further than in Sochi in 2014 when they returned with a bronze medal.

“This is my third semi-final at an Olympic Games, but of course I don’t want it to go the way 2018 went,” said Muirhead.

“That was tough, but I think that as a team, the amount we’ve practiced, the amount we’ve trained, the amount we trust each other, the amount we enjoy it, all we can do is go out there and try our best and curl the way we have all week. I do think if we carry that on and bring this momentum we definitely won’t be far away.” 

Since they have won every competition they have played in together since coming through that nine player squad system in the early part of this season, there is belief that they can produce what they need to in the knockout games.

“I always say that the round-robin is one competition and the play-offs is another, but I would like to think that as a team we are definitely a playoffs team,” said Muirhead.

“We’ve proven we’re capable of winning that gold medal as a five, with Mili Smith as well, our alternate.”

Having carried the flag at the Opening Ceremony, she is now hoping to provide a lead in a different way, with Team GB still looking for its first medals of the Games.

“As Team GB you’re always proud to have Great Britain on your back and we’re glued to the telly any time there’s a GB athlete on and we support them from start to finish,” said Muirhead.

“I’m very proud of how my team’s done. The boys have done fantastically getting a semi-final spot as well and I really hope we do Great Britain proud.”