Winter Olympics: Men's curling team guarantee Great Britain silver medal at least
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Winter Olympics: Great Britain beat United States in men's curling semi-final - highlights
24th Winter Olympic Games |
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Hosts: Beijing, China Dates: 4-20 February |
Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; listen on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds; live text and highlights on BBC Sport website and mobile app |
Great Britain have their first medal of the Winter Olympics after the men's curling team defeated the United States 8-4 in a nail-biting semi-final to guarantee at least silver.
Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan stole one in the penultimate end and held out.
The Scottish quartet will play Sweden for gold at 06:05 GMT on Saturday.
Thirteen days in, it ends concerns the British team might finish without a medal for the first time since 1992.
Eve Muirhead's women's side will have the chance to replicate the men's achievement when they play Sweden at 12:05 on Friday.
"The last two weeks for myself has been a bit of a rollercoaster," Mouat told BBC Sport.
"I'm just so excited to share this with the guys and that celebration at the end was just pure elation - I don't think I can sum it up any other way."
Winter Olympics: Great Britain men beat United States to reach curling final
Having flown through the round-robin section with eight wins and just one defeat, Great Britain were favourites to move through to the gold-medal game.
But they were up against the defending champions and skip John Shuster, who has a habit of performing on the big occasion, as he did four years ago when winning a shock gold.
That feat looked on again when the USA stole two in just the second end, but Britain immediately took three back to settle early nerves.
Another two followed in the fifth end for a 5-4 lead at the halfway point, and then it was all about Mouat and his team holding their nerve.
The next three ends were blank as the game became cagey, but crucially in the ninth end Mouat produced a terrific draw to steal one and increase the lead to two heading into the final end.
And in the last, Shuster could not produce the miracle shot for two that would have rescued his side.
Instead, the British side will at least emulate the achievement of Dave Murdoch's rink in 2014 by securing silver - and have the chance to upgrade to gold.
"I'm excited to play that game," Mouat added. "We've got a day off tomorrow but just looking forward to hopefully going for that gold. I'm shaking."
Winter Olympics: GB men's skip Bruce Moaut 'can't wait to go for gold'
GB 'so impressive' - analysis
Rhona Howie, Olympic curling gold medallist on BBC TV
Great Britain have trained so hard as a team, they work well together. They don't argue with each other, they discuss shots and come to an opinion they're all happy with.
Everything is just so impressive with this young team.
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