European Championships 2018: GB take golf mixed team silver on competition debut
- Published
Georgia Hall (right) and Lee Slattery were in one of three Great Britain groups which included Laura Davies and Callum Shinkwin
2018 European Championships |
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Venues: Glasgow and Berlin Dates: 2-12 August |
Coverage: Live across BBC TV, BBC Radio 5 live and sports extra plus the BBC Sport website with further coverage on BBC iPlayer, Red Button, Connected TVs and mobile app. |
Great Britain's Meghan MacLaren, Liam Johnston, Michele Thomson and Connor Syme took silver in the mixed team event at golf's first European Championships as Iceland clinched gold.
The winners finished on three under, one ahead of Britain, with Sweden and Spain both taking bronze at Gleneagles.
The results were decided on the combined total strokes over 18 holes of the two mixed pairs in each team.
Great Britain had two other teams that finished tied fifth and tied ninth.
British Open winner Georgia Hall and her partner Lee Slattery, four-time major Laura Davies and Callum Shinkwin, were one over with the team of Solheim Cup skipper Catriona Matthew and her partner Charlie Ford, Holly Clyburn and Rhys Enoch, four shots further back.
The silver medallists had finished strongly with back-to-back birdies at the 16th and 17th to set the clubhouse target for their rivals.
Thomson said: "We're obviously delighted. We set out at the start of the week to win a medal. Hopefully this event will happen again. I'd love to see the men and women play more together."
Iceland players make history
Iceland's gold was their country's first medal in any sport at the inaugural Championships
On making history as the first winners of the mixed event:
Olafia Kristinsdottir: "It's really cool. Icelanders are from a really small nation, but we have really big hearts and we believe we can do anything. That is why we have succeeded in so many areas. It is special to put golf on the map."
On the popularity of golf in Iceland:
Axel Boasson: "Golf is growing all the time in Iceland. I wouldn't say it is the biggest professional sport we have, but it is played by the most people."
On joking with friends when she was at college in the United States:
Valdis Thora Jonsdottir: "They didn't know anything about Iceland. So I told them that I lived in a three-storey igloo with a lift and that I had a polar bear as a pet. They weren't sure if I was joking, I think."
On winning Iceland's first medal at the 2018 European Championships:
Birgir Hafthorsson: "Is it? I didn't know that. We've been concentrating on the golf."
Sunday's medal matches
Thomson and Maclaren have the chance to go one better on the last day of the championships in the women's foursomes, although first they must overcome France in their semi-final at 07:45 BST.
Hall and Davies will face Sweden in the other women's foursomes semi on Sunday at 07:30.
Spain have two teams in the men's semi-finals, with Iceland and Italy the opposition.