TEAM GB WOMEN LOSE OUT TO HOSTS CHINA

Eve Muirhead came within a fraction of producing a match-saving shot with her final stone as Team GB’s women suffered an 8-4 defeat to hosts China that means they now need help from elsewhere to have a chance of reaching the semi-finals.

Victory over bottom of the table Russia in their final match could still be enough, but only if play-off rivals Japan and Korea, lose one of the two matches that both of them still have to play.

"It's a little frustrating,” said skip Muirhead, who led Vicky Wright, Jen Dodds and Hailey Duff to victory at the European Championships in their last competitive pre-Olympic outing.

“We are playing really well as a team and we've had some great performances since winning the Europeans and coming through the qualifying tournament.

"It would have been nice to have had a bit more time together as a team but we've done what we can within the pandemic. 

"Things haven't quite gone our way but there is still time for that to change.

"We need to hope a few results go our way but because we beat Japan and USA, we need to hope they drop a game.

"We need to come out and concentrate on our performance against Russia and focus on what we can do and then hope the curling Gods are on our side.

"It's been one of those weeks, sometimes you get the rubs and sometimes nothing seems to go your way.

"The teams we are playing are really up to beat us. We know we can beat Russia but we need to chat with our coaches and iron out the mistakes we made."

Team GB had started with the hammer, but were unable to capitalise at the opening end where they were Muirhead was forced to draw for one and in a cagey first half neither team was able to break clear, a blanked second end followed by an exchange of singles, leaving the scores tied at the midway break.

That pattern continued when the British team was forced again at the sixth end, but the momentum shifted at the seventh end when Muirhead narrowly missed with an attempted takeout, leaving Chinese skip Rui with a draw for the double that nudged her team in front for the first time.

A well played double takeout by Wang then took away what was looking like an opportunity for the British women to score three at the next end, leaving Muirhead with a very difficult double to make two which she was unable to make, having to settle for the one that levelled the scores.

The Chinese then applied the pressure at the ninth and, while Muirhead produced two fine draws behind a Chinese guard in an effort to dig her team out of trouble, her opponent matched that quality with a well played promotion shot that set up the chance of a three, before removing Muirhead’s final stone to secure it.

Team GB battled to the end until Muirhead’s last ditch attempt at that difficult double just missed the second of the target stones to give the hosts the steal that wrapped up their win.

"I thought I'd made that shot,” said Muirhead.

“Another millimetre and we'd have forced an extra end.

"That was a tough shot, you aren't going to make it very often but when you've got no other shot then you need to give those things a go."