Curling: Eve Muirhead’s GB team facing last chance to book Winter Olympics spot

Perth curler Eve Muirhead and her team were crowned European champions less than a fortnight ago but now face an even bigger week as the final Olympic qualifiers get underway in Leeuwarden, Holland on Saturday morning.

Eve Muirhead and her Great Britain side at the last Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang in 2018. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

Muirhead missed out on automatic qualification after finishing outside the top six at last season's World Championships, so the 2014 Olympic bronze medallist now has one last chance to book her place at the 2022 Games in Beijing in February.

The former world champion and her colleagues Hailey Duff, Jennifer Dodds, Vicky Wright and Mili Smith are chasing one of three qualifying spots this week, but so too are Korea's 2018 silver medallist Kim Eun-Jung and Japanese skip Satsuki Fujisawa, who beat Muirhead in the 2018 bronze medal play-off.

The Scots open their qualifying campaign against Anna Kubeskova's Czech rink, whom they trounced 9-1 at the recent European Championships in Norway.

"That was such a great week for us," said vice-skip Wright. "We learned lots about each other and we need to take that into this week."

Dodds added: “All the girls showed exactly what we’re made of. We had so much fun, so let’s just keep it rolling!"

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