Murdoch looks to Martin to inspire curling gold

Published on Wednesday 22 February 2006 11:18

DAVID MURDOCH does not require much motivation but, if he's looking for inspiration, he only need look to a familiar figure sitting in the stands.

Rhona Martin's Olympic curling title defence may have ended but the star of 2002 still casts a shadow as Britain's men look for a gold medal shot in tonight's semi-final against Finland.

Martin is commentating on the match and admits she'll be a "bag of nerves" for Murdoch and his all-Scots team-mates Ewan MacDonald, Euan Byers and Warwick Smith.

"I've watched that video of Rhona winning in Salt Lake so many times and wished it was me," said Murdoch.

"You work for so long to get a chance to make a shot like she did and what happened that night is still an inspiration.

"I watched that final with 150 others at my local rink, it was a quite unbelievable night."

However, now it's Murdoch's turn to take the national spotlight. More than six million are expected to watch tonight's live TV coverage from Pinerolo and Murdoch is under no illusions about the daunting task ahead.

"This is the biggest game of our lives, we are just two wins from being the Olympic champions - it's unbelievably huge," he added. "This is about achieving something I've dreamed about for a long, long time. It's the kind of game you always want to play in."

MacDonald, whose wife Fiona won gold in 2002 and is watching back at home in Inverness with their two-year-old son Jake, has been top of the consistency charts for Britain in their nine group matches.

And he can't wait to avenge his disappointment from Salt Lake, after Hammy McMillan's team failed to make the final four, despite arriving in Utah in red-hot form.

"We've had a good time but this is serious now," said MacDonald. "This is why we've put in all the training, all the practice, all the hard work. This is what we came here for."

Finland represent a tough task for Great Britain after they qualified for the final four as the top ranked team.

Their skip, Markku Uusipaavalniemi, is more than just a triple word score at Scrabble, boasting some of the most impressive stats of any curler here in Italy.

Britain lost 5-2 in their previous meeting on Sunday, a game played when Murdoch's men had already secured their semi-final passage.

However, Murdoch got the better of Uusipaavalniemi at last year's World Championships in Canada, going on to take the silver medal while Finland only finished fifth. In the other semi-final, reigning world champions Canada take on the US.