Great Britain settle for silver after defeat to Canada in men’s curling

Britain’s men’s curling team had to settle for a silver medal after losing 6-9 to Canada in the Olympic final in Cortina.

Bruce Mouat’s side had only made the semi-final cut by virtue of other results falling in their favour, with their place confirmed just hours before Thursday night’s 8-5 victory against Switzerland.

Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan were looking to upgrade the silver medal they won four years ago in Beijing after their bumpy ride to the final.

Canada had the advantage of the hammer in the first end but were limited to just one point, with Britain taking two in the second end with the final stone.

Two for Canada in third edged them in front, with some loose throws from Britain making Mouat’s final stone a pressure shot, but he rose to the challenge to level the scores.

In what was a tense contest, Canada took the one before the break but with the hammer in the sixth end, Mouat again played the perfect concluding shot with a double take out for two points to put Britain in front.

With each side scoring a point apiece over the next two ends, it was Britain who had their nose in front at 6-5 coming into the ninth end.

Canada set themselves up perfectly for a multiple score and Britain were left scrambling with their final stone to limit the damage, calling a time out before their closing effort fell short, with Lammie slapping his brush head on to an adjacent rink as Canada took three.

Britain had the hammer in the final end but the game looked to be slipping away, with another double take out from Mouat good but not quite good enough as Canada stole a point to seal victory.

Hardie said: “We wanted to win it for each other. The pain from four years ago was that much, we thought let’s go and give it another go.

“We gave ourselves the chance. So much good work to try to redeem ourselves, but unfortunately we’ve not got there again.”

Mouat added: “That’s the incredible thing that we will take away from this week, regardless of the result. The amount of people that have come out to support us, the amount of people that have messaged us from back home.

“The boys and I love our sport, we want people to join our sport.

“If we can take anything away from this week as well as the silver medal, it is being able to inspire people hopefully to participate. That is an achievement in itself I hope.”

British coach Greg Drummond pointed to the ninth end as the pivotal moment, and said: “We’re obviously disappointed, we came here to win the event and it’s not quite transpired that way.

“Couldn’t be more prouder of the boys. But in some respect, the game sums up the week a little bit. We’ve been very, very close to A plus the whole week.

“We didn’t piece a ninth end together. That was ultimately the moment where we lost control of the game. We had done so, so much of the hard work early to flip the hammer, take a lead into nine.

“You know, everyone missed a shot in the ninth end. It’s not like it came down to one shot. Bruce was left a very tough one at the end, which was probably about two inches away from being perfect.

“The guys have played great all week. We’ve lost to a very good team. There’s no question in that, but it’s going to sting for a little while, because the guys, when they are A plus, they are the best in the world.”