Team GB’s Winter Olympics medal wait goes on after agonising curling defeat

8 hours ago 1

Great Britain are still searching for their first medal of the Winter Olympics after Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds were defeated in a nail-biting curling mixed doubles bronze medal game by Italy.

The match went down to the final end before defeat by the 2022 curling champions with Stefania Constantini making sure of victory with her final throw.

Italy had led throughout the match but the British pair had given themselves a chance before ending in fourth place, the same position they obtained – again without a medal – at the Beijing Games.

Mouat and Dodds were both fighting back tears when speaking to the BBC reporter afterwards. “So close but yet so far – it hurts as much as it did four years ago. Thank you to everyone back home who are loving curling as much as we are,” said Dodds.

Mouat said: “We played so much better than four years ago – to leave without a medal is tough. We talked last night about how lucky we are to be even competing at the Olympics with my best mate here.”

After topping the round-robin stage, the British pair slumped to a 9-3 defeat the hands of Sweden in Monday’s semi-final and had to regroup for a Tuesday afternoon clash with 2022 Olympic champions Constantini and Amos Mosaner.

A missed opportunity in the first end saw Italy take an early 1-0 lead, with Britain levelling the score in the second before a perfectly delivered final stone from Constantini in the third edged Italy back in front.

A further point for Italy in a nervy match put them 3-1 ahead at the half-way stage, although Britain secured a point in the fifth end to keep within range of their rivals. In the sixth end, Dodds and Mouat consulted with coach Greg Drummond but the time-out did not help as Mosaner produced a winning shot to extend the Italian’s lead to 4-2.

A point in the seventh end kept Britain in the hunt but with the advantage of the hammer, Constantini secured bronze for Italy.