It’s not to be for curling rink Team Muirhead as they lose their semi-final while Emily Sarsfield is all smiles after making her Olympic ski cross debut.
- Curlers defeated 10-5 by Sweden and now face Japan in the bronze medal match tomorrow
- Emily Sarsfield reaches the quarter-finals of the ski cross, a best ever British result in the event
- Team GB’s bobsleigh crews complete their final training runs ahead of this weekend’s competition runs
Curling
Team GB skip Eve Muirhead insisted she’d rally herself and her troops for a curling bronze medal match after suffering the disappointment of losing an Olympic semi-final for the second successive Games.
The rink will now have to hope for a similar result to Sochi, when they rebounded to claim third spot on the podium, when they take on Japan tomorrow evening (20:05 KST).
Swedish skip Anna Hasselborg always seemed to have the upper hand in the encounter, leading 2-0 and 5-3 before a seventh end steal of three putting the game beyond reach, eventually winning 10-5.
Muirhead had beaten Hasselborg to win bronze at last year’s World Championships and took gold at the recent European Championships. But the Swede, who now faces hosts South Korea in the gold medal match, has crucially beaten Muirhead on both occasions here in PyeongChang.
“I definitely don’t think it can harm us what we went through four years ago. We went through a semi-final loss and we came back strong to get the bronze medal,” said Muirhead.
“As a team, we know exactly what we did. From four years ago we learnt a lot so we’re going to come out very strong and hopefully play well for that bronze.
“Every team you play it’s going to be a tough game. Japan lost a world final a couple of years ago, it’s going to be a tough game.
“We’re going to come out strong and do our best to get that medal.”
Ski Cross
The long years of hard work, tears and sacrifices were worth it for Emily Sarsfield as she recorded Great Britain’s best-ever Olympic ski cross result.
The Durham skier reached the quarter-finals in PyeongChang, surpassing Sarah Sauvey’s 34th place from Vancouver 2010.
Sarsfield missed out on being in contention for those Games after suffering a potentially career-ending knee injury at the test event in Canada the year previous, with PyeongChang 2018 her Games debut.
“To be here at this event is huge for me and to be racing against these amazing girls is super cool. It meant a huge amount to me,” said Sarsfield, who was 22nd after Thursday’s seeding run.
“Conditions were a bit different to training and the seeding run because we had ten centimetres of fresh snow and that can really affect our speed,” she added.
“We had to throw all our training out the window and learn some new tactics and we were doing different things on the track to what we had in training.
“The one thing I’m known for is a strong start but I think I tried a bit too hard there.”
Bobsleigh
Team GB’s bobsleigh crews concluded their training runs ahead of this weekend’s competition.
Lamin Deen’s crew were tenth and 11th fastest in heats five and six while pilot Brad Hall saw his team clock the joint 18th and 14th fastest times.
Day 15 Preview
After missing out on a place in the gold medal match, Eve Muirhead and her rink will aim to bounce back and claim a second consecutive Olympic bronze. They play Japan at 20:05 (11:05am UK time).
It’s the first ever men’s snowboard big air final tomorrow with Team GB represented by Billy Morgan. The two-time Olympian will be second to drop after American Redmond Gerard from 10:00 (01:00am UK time).
Report courtesy of Team GB
