Scotland’s tight-knit curling community on Friday pledged to come back stronger after their Olympians saw their chance of a gold medal evaporate in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
The women’s team were defeated by Sweden in the semi-final. The men’s team were knocked out earlier.
Curling is literally part of the Scottish landscape.
Photo: AFP
The 20kg stones that glide towards icy targets around the world are exclusively carved from a tiny volcanic rock off Scotland’s west coast.
The world’s oldest curling stone inscribed with the date 1511 was found in a drained lake in Dunblane, birthplace of Scottish tennis ace Andy Murray.
Scottish players dominate the British Olympic teams with siblings Eve, Glen and Thomas Muirhead forming the cornerstone of the men’s and ladies’ British teams — and for them curling is in the blood.
Their dad, Gordon, is a former World Champion and still plays professionally at home.
He was competing in the Scottish Seniors championship while his girl was taking on Sweden at the Olympics, and he finished his heats just in time to rush off to watch his daughter’s valiant performance.
“I’m from a curling family,” he told reporters at Braehead Curling Rink, in Glasgow. “My father curled, my grandfather curled, my uncle was twice world silver medalist and so it just passed down, it was just a natural thing to do.”
“I started by going to watch my father curling. My kids got dragged along to the ice rinks when I was playing and I used to play quite competitively a lot, so it was just something that they were always going to do,” Gordon Muirhead said.
“The whole profile has been upped... because the Olympics is just enormous. They’re pushing it and I know the commentators on TV are pushing it to try and get folk to come and try. A lot of the ice rinks are doing come and try sessions. It’s a game that you can play from seven to 70,” he added.
The Muirhead clan are keen to broaden curling’s appeal, not only beyond their own family, but also south of the border in England, where it remains a niche sport.
“There’s only one facility in England just now and that’s in Kent, and hopefully we’ll get more facilities down in England,” Gordon Muirhead said.
“We’ve got 20 to 25 curling facilities in Scotland so we’re not too bad. Nobody is hours away from a curling facility, so hopefully we get a few more down in England and get a bit of interest,” he added.
Curling fans on Friday flocked to Braehead in their droves to watch the action taking place both at home — and more than 8,000km away on television.
“I think the girls will be absolutely gutted after losing that game. I know how much work they all put in.” said Susan Kesley, a curler who plays at Murrayfield Curling Rink in Edinburgh.
“I hope with the amount of really good television coverage we’ve had, it will bring people into the sport and that’s what we would like, getting more young people turning up at the ice rinks to come and try it,” Kesley added.
“I see no reason why they cannot continue on, especially the men’s team as well, because they’re quite young and they’ve a long way to go yet, so the future is good for Scottish curling,” said Keith Prentice, former World Championship winning curler.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but