Muirhead’s Scots storm past Danes to reach final

This now sets up a repeat of last year’s final, with Sweden, having qualified direct, waiting for Scotland to contest gold medals.

Against Denmark, who had beaten Scotland by 12-2 in the round-robin, the Scots were in charge throughout. They moved into a lead they were never to lose in the third end when, after Lene Nielsen’s last shot was heavy, Muirhead had a draw for three shots.

The Scots scored again in the fourth end when Nielsen had another draw that was too heavy. Eventually, after an umpire’s measure, the Scots put another three shots on to the scoreboard for an unassailable 6-1 lead.

The Scots kept the fifth end tidy, particularly through a good Muirhead double take-out, leaving Denmark to blank the end. Muirhead produced another good double to lie three as Nielsen played her last shot in the sixth, but she could only move one of the Scots’ stones and Scotland stole another two.

In the seventh, both Muirhead and third player Anna Sloan had good clear-out shots, leaving Nielsen with no option but to hit for just one shot. Eventually, in the eighth, Muirhead had a good double take-out to score two points for 10-2, after which Denmark conceded. They will play Russia to decide the destination of the bronze medals.

Afterwards, Muirhead said: “The first three was key. We put the pressure on them and for the second three she was a bit indecisive.

“Really, they weren’t even close to us out there and, once we get up, we’re a good hitting team and we hit them off the park.”

Looking forward, she added: “We’ve just been getting better as the week goes on and that’s what you’ve got to do at a championship.

“If you peak too early you’ll slowly go down and down and we’re doing the opposite. Sweden are undefeated and deserve to be in the final, but we’re definitely going to give them a run for their money.

“I’m sure it’s going to be a good game. It’s a replay of last year’s final when I had a shot to win it. Coming away with silver wasn’t nice. I don’t want to come away with a silver medal again”.

In the men’s semi-final, Norway beat the Czech Republic by 5-2 and now face Sweden for gold, while the Czechs have another medal chance when they play Denmark for bronze.

Reaching the semi-final has been the best performance ever by a Czech team but they found themselves in trouble early yesterday when their skip Jiri Snitil failed with an attempted angled take-out in the third end, handing Norway a steal of two for a 3-0 lead. After this, Norwegian skip Thomas Ulsrud controlled the game, restricting the Czechs throughout.

They took a single in the fourth and, in the eighth, Snitil had the consolation of scoring a single point with a good double take-out. However, Ulsrud eventually had a straightforward draw-shot in the ninth to take the one point that sealed the Norwegian win.

After the game, Ulsrud said: “It feels great to be back in the final. After a really troubled week, we’re there and have a shot at gold. After the first game we lost against Latvia, I didn’t think we were going to play the final this year, but the guys pulled through and I’m really happy. This whole season’s been troubled for us, so hopefully this will be it now.”

Looking specifically at the semi-final itself, Ulsrud added: “Our experience probably played a part. These are big games and we were lucky to get a steal of two in the third. From then on we were three up and we just controlled the game and didn’t give them a chance.”

And he is looking forward to trying to get the better of the Swedes in the showpiece match. “It feels good to get another shot at Sweden,” he said. “We’ve had two close games here and one went to an extra end – we will give them a real fight in the final. This will be big for us because this year we’ve been bad all season, so to come good in the Europeans would be great”.