Britain’s men face anxious wait to see if they will make Olympic curling semis

Britain’s men’s curling team face an anxious wait to see if they will make the Olympic semi-finals, with their fate resting on the results of two final round-robin matches on Thursday.

Bruce Mouat’s side lined up against the United States on Wednesday afternoon knowing nothing less than a victory would do and they dominated the opening three ends, taking a point in each of the first two before a mistake from American skip Daniel Casper allowed Mouat’s side to steal a further four in the third.

With a scoreline of 6-2 at the halfway mark, Britain were firmly in control and once another three points were secured in the sixth end, the Americans offered a handshake to complete a 9-2 victory.

With Italy and Norway losing their respective matches to Canada and Switzerland, Britain now need results to go their way in Thursday morning’s session, when Italy face Switzerland and Norway take on Canada.

Mouat said: “We’re doing a lot of good things, so we’re just having to hope for other results to go our way now.

“It’s looking all right for us at the minute but it’s hard to be in that position when you’re out of control.

“I actually feel like we were pretty close in a lot of the games. We just had a few shots that were really bad and cost us a lot.

“There’s not much frustration for me. I think I’m actually oddly calm at this moment. I feel like things are going to go our way and just kind of hopeful for that.”

Mouat and his side have completed all of their matches and will only be able to watch as their Olympic destiny is decided at the Cortina Curling Stadium.

Team member Hammy McMillan Jr said: “I’ll probably be watching the shot-by-shot or I’ll be watching it on my phone or something. But we will be following both games tomorrow very closely.

“I think the situation is that in theory only one team has to lose tomorrow for us to be in the play-offs.”

McMillan would just be happy to qualify for the semi-finals, adding: “We treat it as two events. It’s the first event, it’s the qualifier for the semis, getting that top four.

“Then it’s pretty much a clean slate. Everything that’s happened this week so far is forgotten about and you’ve literally got two games.”

Earlier in the day the British women’s team had pulled off a last-gasp victory over America to keep their semi-final hopes alive.

Rebecca Morrison delivered a perfect double take-out in the final end to edge an 8-7 triumph, which means Britain are not out of it, though they must win their final two matches against Japan on Wednesday evening and Italy on Thursday afternoon to have any chance.

“I think, considering the situation, it’s up there for sure as one of my best ever (throws),” Morrison said.

“I think that was one of the most electric moments we’ve had as a team, the crowds just lit up there and that was so fantastic for us. Yeah, absolutely overjoyed with that.”