European Curling Championships: Eve Muirhead's Scots win bronze medal

Eve Muirhead's Scotland rink had gone nine games unbeaten in the round robin

Scotland's women bounced back from a shock semi-final defeat by Russia to beat Czech Republic to bronze at the European Curling Championships.

Eve Muirhead's rink, who had topped the round robin with nine straight wins, defeated Anna Kubeskova's side 6-2.

Muirhead said: "We're delighted to take a medal, especially in our home place and in front of a home crowd."

Peter De Cruz's Switzerland edged out Alexey Timofeev's Russia 8-6 to take the men's bronze.

Sweden's Niklas Edin, the holder, takes on Norway's Thomas Ulsrid in the men's final on Saturday, while Victoria Moiseeva's reigning champions face Anna Hasselborg's Sweden in the women's final.

Moiseeva's rink, who finished third equal with the Czechs after the round robin, were never behind in a match against the Scots in which they scored threes at three ends.

Muirhead, who had earlier admitted that her side were simply "outplayed", conceded with two ends remaining and admits the Scots had to forget all about what might have been.

"It took a lot of resilience out there to bounce back from losing that semi-final," she told BBC Scotland, having been back on the ice at Braehead Arena less than three hours after losing to the Russians.

"To come out and win a bronze medal was tough, but we managed it and I'm really, really proud of the girls."

Russia reach the final despite losing three of their nine round-robin games

Anna Sloan, who missed much of this season as she recovered from knee surgery, admitted that the team were after the gold medal.

"We binned it after a quick chat," she said of the semi-final loss. "And we were determined not to go away without a medal here."

It was a seventh European medal for Scotland skip Muirhead, but it was a first for Lauren Gray, who joined the team at the start of this season.

"It feels amazing" she said. "It's a proud moment."

It was a tight match against the Czechs, who had reached the play-offs for the first time, with the Scots only 4-2 ahead at the seventh end before pulling away for victory.

Fourth team member Vicki Adams said: "We had good start to the game and we felt good going out there.

"We were relaxed and we always play well when we're relaxed."

In the men's event, Scotland had already missed out on the semi-finals but did secure a place at next year's World Championship.

Tom Brewster's rink finished sixth as Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and Russia progressed.

Sweden overcame Russia 8-5 in the last four, while Norway beat Switzerland 7-4 in the other semi-final.

Men's Division A

Round-robin standings: Sweden (8-1) Q, Norway, Switzerland, Russia Q (6-3), Germany, Scotland (4-5) Italy, Finland, Austria (3-6), Denmark (2-7)

Semi-finals: Sweden 8-5 Russia, Norway 7-4 Switzerland

Bronze medal game: Switzerland 8-6 Russia

Women's Division A

Round-robin standings: Scotland (9-0) Q, Sweden (8-1) Q, Czech Republic, Russia (6-3) Q, Denmark (4-5), Switzerland (4-5)Germany (4-5), Italy (2-7), Norway, Finland (1-8)

Semi-finals: Russia 11-6 Scotland, Sweden 9-2 Czech Republic

Bronze medal game: Scotland 6-2 Czech Republic