US sweep Britons aside to win bronze

Published on Saturday 25 February 2006 03:02

DAVID Murdoch's curlers ended their Winter Olympic campaign empty-handed in fourth place following an 8-6 defeat to the USA in yesterday's bronze-medal play-off.

It was the British men's fourth successive defeat and, after promising so much early in the Games, the team ground to a disappointing halt. In each loss Murdoch did not have the crucial last-stone advantage and on straight ice this proved to be telling.

"This has been a fantastic team really," he said. "We've done everything right, we've trained hard and put in as much effort as we could. I'm afraid it's a hard-luck story. We've just not had the breaks in the last couple of games and got caught out."

There was a question mark over how Murdoch's team would recover from their devastating last-stone semi-final loss, when Finland made a perfect draw to win.

Murdoch said: "That big shot will be in my memory for quite a while. Hopefully I'll get a chance to bury that at the next Olympics."

National coach Mike Hay added: "It's hard to say anything meaningful to these guys as a coach right now. They've all got world medals and they would have traded them in for Olympic bronzes - that's how important this game was to us."

US curler Joe Polo, who like the rest of the team hails from Bemidji, Minnesota, said: "We came for a medal and we didn't care what colour it was. We're very happy with a bronze."

Polo skidded up and down the ice sheet after the win, applauding the hundreds of American supporters lined across the front of the stands.

The teams swapped singles in the first two ends and, in the third, Murdoch left his last stone hanging wide, letting USA skip Pete Fenson nudge up one of his own to score three for a 4-1 lead.

Murdoch's men battled back and he seemed to have turned the tide in the seventh end when a good double take-out for three closed the gap to 6-5. But Murdoch left himself too much to do and eventually Fenson had a simple draw for one shot and the bronze medal in the tenth and final end.

Murdoch added: "There was no curl there and we left our stones out in the open a little bit and got punished for it."

Canada crushed Finland 10-4 in the final, handing the world's largest curling nation its first men's Olympic gold.