Scotland's women take European curling bronze after beating Italy

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Rebecca Morrison (centre) and her team celebrateImage source, WCF/Ansis Ventins
Image caption,

Rebecca Morrison's rink had finished below Italy in the round robin

Scotland's women have secured bronze at the European Curling Championships after beating Italy 9-5 in Sweden.

Skip Rebecca Morrison, Gina Aitken, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson were playing in their first major championship together.

Morrison was hoping to follow in the footsteps of Eve Muirhead, who has retired since winning gold at the 2021 Euros and 2022 Olympics.

"We look to just go onwards and upwards from this point," Morrison said.

"Considering this is our first championship together, it means we could have such a bright future together ahead of us."

Morrison's rink, who had finished fourth in the round robin behind the second-top Italians, faced a third-place play-off in Ostersund after losing their semi-final 11-3 to Denmark on Thursday.

With the Scots losing to Madeleine Dupont's rink and Stefania Constantini's team being beaten by Alina Paetz's world champions from Switzerland, it meant that Morrison's side would have to reverse a 10-4 round-robin defeat by Italy to secure a medal.

"After yesterday's disappointment, we just had to tell ourselves that our goal this week at our first Europeans was to medal and we weren't out of reach of that," Morrison said. "It just shows how much resilience we have within our team."

The Scots were never behind in the bronze medal game after scoring three in the opening end.

Although the Italians levelled by the fifth end, two consecutive doubles set Morrison's rink on the road to their first major medal.

"I could hardly believe it when we got off to such a great start," Scotland's skip said.

"At half-time, we were all square, so we were back to the start again, but we just had to tell ourselves that we were really playing well out there and just keep it up. I think everyone kept their cool really well."

Finishing in the top eight had already qualified the Scots for next year's World Curling Championships.