Eve Muirhead's Scottish curlers stay on track for Olympic spot with victory over Germany

Eve Muirhead and her Scottish curling team edged closer to a place at the Winter Olympics in February after beating European bronze medallists Germany 7-4 at the final qualifiers in Leeuwarden, Holland.
Eve Muirhead and her team of Scottish curlers are closing in on a place in the Winter Olympics.  (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)Eve Muirhead and her team of Scottish curlers are closing in on a place in the Winter Olympics.  (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)
Eve Muirhead and her team of Scottish curlers are closing in on a place in the Winter Olympics. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

Monday night's crucial victory over old rivals Japan was a massive morale-booster, and the recently-crowned European champions maintained that momentum on Tuesday as they posted their third win in five round-robin games.

Muirhead and company counted two stones at the first end and led 4-1 after four, allowing them to happily trade singles with Daniela Jentsch's German rink for the rest of the match.

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“We carried on our good play from yesterday when we played well against Japan,” said Muirhead. “We knew that was going to be an important game today and every match will be from now on, but I think that was a very clinical performance and the team came together very well.”

While the stones were rubbed overnight in a bid to generate more curl, the conditions remain challenging.

“It didn’t make an awful lot of difference,” Muirhead added. “It’s still pretty straight conditions out there and it’s not curling as much as we are used to, but we’re starting to come together and figuring out the ice quicker.

“At the start of the week we were a bit rocky, but I do think now that we seem to have found our groove and have that eye on the prize that we know we want so badly and we’re just focusing on every single game, with three very important games to come.”

They now face an Eastern European double-header on Wednesday when they take on Estonia and Latvia. ​The top three countries this week will qualify for Beijing.

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