Olympic silver medallist Bruce Mouat insisted his team will come back stronger after narrowly missing out on a fifth European Curling Championship gold medal.
Team Mouat eased through the round-robin stage, winning eight of their nine matches and squeezed past Switzerland in the semi-finals to set up a showdown with Germany in Lohja, Finland.
However it was the Germans who prevailed 9-7 in the showpiece to deny the defending champions Mouat, Hammy McMillan Jr., Bobby Lammie, and Grant Hardie a fifth gold.
But after ultimately settling for silver, the skip was confident his squad had shown plenty of reasons to be cheerful ahead of the upcoming Grand Slam of Curling in Canada this month.
“I thought we were playing well enough to win the championship, but sometimes you don’t have a great game. It’s just disappointing that it happened in the gold medal match,” said Mouat.
“I’m just pretty gutted that we didn’t get that across the line and that I never performed as well as I was hoping to.
“I missed a few line calls and caused some tough misses for the guys, but we’re going to try to bounce back for a Slam next week.
“To be fair to the Germans they played an unbelievable game and credit where credit’s due, they deserve the title by playing so well.
“If someone had told me that by the age of 30, I would have four gold medals and a silver as well at the Europeans I would have been very impressed and it’s nice to reflect like that, but in the moment it’s hard to get over how gutted we’re feeling that we didn’t get the fifth gold.
“I don’t think we need any motivation to go and try to win another Slam. The event’s going to be pretty amazing to play in and we’re really looking forward to getting out to St John’s and going for another title.”
There was further British success in Finland, as Team Jackson took bronze for Scotland on the women’s side.
Skip Sophie Jackson guided her side through the round-robin stage with six wins and three defeats, before a narrow defeat to Sweden meant they faced Italy for the bronze medal.
Jackson, alongside Rebecca Morrison, Sophie Sinclair and Beijing Olympian Jen Dodds rose to the challenge to see off their opponents 6-4 and seal their place on the podium.
“We felt really in control from the start of the game as we had a great handle of the ice from the first end,” said Jackson.
“We knew if we kept sticking to our processes and piling the pressure on the Italians that was all that we could do.”
The squad started their campaign slowly, with defeat to Sweden in their opening match before further losses to Switzerland and Turkey followed a final-end victory over Denmark.
But Team Jackson rallied to win the rest of their matches and secure a semi-final berth, something she believes can now act as a springboard.
“We have a great belief and confidence as a collective right now and this championship has really helped cement that,” she said.
“Hopefully we can continue to build on this form for the rest of the season, at tour events and championships.
“I’m really proud of the whole team’s resilience at this championship.
“We could easily have let our heads go down after going 1-3 at the start of the week.
“To go undefeated in the last five games of the round-robin is something to be proud of."
Sportsbeat 2024