Beijing 2022: Team GB’s skeleton run over as curlers struggle

Despite a tight 9-7 loss to the United States in the morning session, Great Britain looked in top form in the evening session as they swept aside the Norwegians 8-3.

Mouat, whose team now have Saturday off before returning for a double-header on Sunday, said: “They are really good side but we’re playing really well and that was clinical, and it was important to bounce back from the defeat to the USA.

“This was a really important game for ironing out the kinks in our game, all four of us were firing on all cylinders and that really gives us some momentum.

“We controlled the game from the start and established ourselves, we were pretty relentless and never gave up.”

Eve Muirhead bemoaned a “frustrating” morning after her team lost their second of three round-robin games 9-7 to South Korea.

The 31-year-old looked to have turned the tie in her favour when she stole two in the eighth end, but they gave away four in the next and could not claw back the deficit.

“That’s a frustrating one to take,” admitted Muirhead, who next faces an important clash with the United States on Saturday evening.

“We’ve got to move on. We’ve only played three games and we’ve been in this position before.

“We were in this position in the Olympic qualifier where we’d only won one game and lost two, so we know where we are, we know what we’ve got to do and of course we are going to come out tomorrow firing.”

Great Britain’s 20-year run of Winter Olympic skeleton success is over after a dismal series of results in Yanqing on Friday.

Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt, both of whom have achieved World Cup podium places this season, wrapped up their four-run campaigns in 15th and 16th places respectively.

Meanwhile Laura Deas and Brogan Crowley sit 21st and 22nd respectively after the first two runs of the women’s event which concludes on Saturday, with the pair only besting athletes from South Korea, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

It means Britain’s streak of Olympic skeleton medals stretching back to 2002 - and including three in Pyeongchang four years ago - is over, and will raise inevitable questions over the return for the £6.5million pumped into the sport by UK Sport during the current Olympic cycle.

Weston said: “I can’t lie, I’m disappointed where we finished. I feel like we had a lot more potential in what we can do as athletes, and it’s a bit disappointing to have my first Games finish like this.”

It was a similar story in the women’s race where Pyeongchang bronze medallist Deas seemed perplexed about her slow time despite a relatively clean run, finishing a total of 1.80 seconds off leader Jaclyn Narracott of Australia.

Deas said: “I can’t tell you right now why the speed wasn’t there. I don’t know. I think I did myself proud.”