Winter Olympics: Eve Muirhead defends shot as GB miss out

Eve Muirhead went for glory and instead scored curling's equivalent of an own goal to hand Japan Winter Olympics bronze.
Great Britain's skipper Eve Muirhead (second right) and team mates Anna Sloan, Lauren Gray and Vicki Adams look dejected after losing the Women's Bronze Medal match.Great Britain's skipper Eve Muirhead (second right) and team mates Anna Sloan, Lauren Gray and Vicki Adams look dejected after losing the Women's Bronze Medal match.
Great Britain's skipper Eve Muirhead (second right) and team mates Anna Sloan, Lauren Gray and Vicki Adams look dejected after losing the Women's Bronze Medal match.

But the Great Britain skip does not regret the decision to go for broke in a 5-3 loss at Gangneung Curling Centre which meant her side finished outside the medals in fourth place.

“The shot was there for the game and as a skip you’re going to try to play that shot to win,” Muirhead said.

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“The shot was definitely there. I played a nice one with my first. Unfortunately I just needed it to curl another centimetre and I had it.

“Curling comes down to the inch and unfortunately we were on the wrong side of it. I’m absolutely gutted.”

Defeat to Sweden in Friday’s semi-final saw Muirhead, Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Lauren Gray fall into the battle for bronze, which they won at Sochi 2014.

In a tactical encounter, Japan were 3-2 down and blanked the sixth and seventh ends to retain possession of the hammer before drawing level in the eighth end.

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A fine shot by Japan skip Satsuki Fujisawa piled the pressure on Muirhead in the ninth, but the 27-year-old missed her attempted takeout. Britain had the scoring stone as Muirhead threw the last stone of the 10th end, but instead of scoring two points for the victory – or even one to force an extra end – her shot pushed a Japanese stone further into the house to seal defeat.

Muirhead said: “Every game you lose is hard. This time around it is very hard. It’s really difficult to reflect on it just now.”