Sochi 2014: Howie backs Eve Muirhead to win gold

RHONA Howie won Olympic gold the hard way – and she’s backing the class of 2014 to do the same, if that is what it takes.

Eve Muirhead: Still confident Picture: AFP

It is 12 years since Howie delivered her famous stone of destiny in Salt Lake City and Eve Muirhead’s rink, who she now helps coach, arrived in Sochi strongly fancied to follow in her footsteps.

But Muirhead, Anna Sloan, Claire Hamilton and Vicki Adams have yet to show the form that won them last year’s world title and took them through the entire recent European Championships unbeaten, until a final defeat to Sweden in the match that mattered.

Today’s final round-robin games with Russia and Denmark are crucial to deciding whether they advance to the semi-finals, with four wins and three defeats so far. Both teams are below them in the standings and both are playing for pride, but after a disappointing defeat to Mirjam Ott’s Switzerland on Saturday, Muirhead knows there is no margin for error.

“We’re not done and out, we’ve got a long way to go and we’ll be pushing hard all the way,” she insisted. “We’re all throwing the stone great.

“We’re 4-3 and we’ve lost to Sweden, Canada and Switzerland and they’re three tough teams. However, if we played any of those guys again we’re confident they are there for the taking.”

Howie has seen it all before, famously needing results to go her way before coming through two tie-breakers to make the Olympic semis in Salt Lake City.

“They went into the worlds last year as European champions and now they are coming in to this as current world champions so they are used to dealing with those pressures,” she said

“When they step on the ice that is what they are focused on, one game at a time. The outcome will take care of itself if we keep the processes right. In 2002 the pressure was on me to perform but now it is on the players, it’s in their hands. It’s out of my control when they’re on the ice.”

Muirhead’s rink have not had the winning swagger they showed at the recent European Championships, perhaps struggling to adapt to the pace of the Olympic tournament.

Usually they play two games a day to establishing a rhythm and momentum, in Sochi the schedule is more sedate – they didn’t play at all yesterday.

“It’s physically tough and mentally very demanding, your brain can feel absolutely frazzled at the end of the day and you just can’t afford to lose any focus,” added Muirhead.

“It’s important we break the Olympics down to two parts, the qualifying then the play-offs and semi-finals are like a new event. We’ve trained hard for this, we know we are capable. It’s going to be tough but I love playing under pressure.”