Olympic curling qualifier: Eve Muirhead's Scots win round robin to secure GB's place
- Published
Eve Muirhead (left) has secured a fourth appearance at the Winter Olympics
Scotland have secured Great Britain's place at the Winter Olympics after a dramatic day at the women's curling qualifying event in the Netherlands.
Eve Muirhead's rink defeated Italy 8-1 to pip Japan to the automatic spot after Fujisawa Satsuki's team fell to a surprise 8-5 defeat by Turkey.
The Scots, Japan and Korea all finish on six wins and two defeats after the round robin.
But Muirhead's European champions won on a countback of last-stone draws.
That is based on pre-match stones thrown to dictate which team wins the hammer.
While Eve Muirhead, Vicky Wright, Jen Dodds and Hailey Duff were thrashing the Italians in double quick time, finishing in the game after six of the scheduled 10 ends, the drama was unfolding across the ice.
Dilsat Yildiz's Turkey, who had inflicted a shock defeat on the Scots at the start of the week but were sitting at the bottom of the round robin, were heading for victory against a Japan rink that denied Team GB a medal at the last Winter Olympics.
"I couldn't actually watch the Japan game," Muirhead admitted. "I went to my room because I hate watching. I'd much rather be on the ice.
"The four other girls watched it and then they phoned me and the celebrations began there and then. It's going to take a while to sink in, but to have booked Team GB a place on the flight to Beijing and to have the chance of going back to another Olympic Games is something very, very special."
The final round-robin results mean the Korea rink, led by Kim Eun-jung, face a play-off against Japan for the second berth at the Games, which start in Beijing on 4 February.
The loser will have a second chance to claim an Olympic place against Latvia after Evelina Barone's rink finished fourth.
Great Britain join Switzerland, Russia, the United States, Sweden, Denmark and Canada in qualifying for the Olympics so far.
Team Muirhead still await the official GB selection process, but that seems a foregone conclusion given they have won all four competitions they have played together, including beating both reigning Olympic champions Team Hasselborg and winners of the last two World Championships, Team Tirinzoni, on their way to winning the European Curling Championships a fortnight ago.
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