Scottish Curling Championships: Mouat targets title as route to elusive World gold

Bruce Mouat's rink are going for a record-equalling fourth title in the men's event in Dumfries

Bruce Mouat is keen to establish his Murrayfield rink as domestic champions, despite having guided Team GB to Olympic silver in Beijing a year ago.

Skip Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan have won their first three matches as they bid to reclaim the Scottish Curling Championship at the Dumfries Ice Bowl.

The Covid-19 lockdown in 2021 halted their run of three Scottish titles and a clash of dates with the Olympics ruled them out in 2022.

"It's been a good start to the competition for us," said Mouat, 28.

"It means a lot to be playing the Scottish Championships again. It's been three years since we played our last one so it's very exciting to be back."

You could be forgiven for thinking the Olympic silver medallist and three-time European champion would be fairly relaxed about his home event.

Not so, since not only would a fourth title equal the men's record, but selection for the World Championships is up for grabs - and Mouat has eyes on the global gold that has so far eluded him.

Last year, after narrowly missing out on the gold medal at the Winter Olympics to Sweden's Niklas Edin, Mouat and his team-mates were not back in time from China to compete in the national championships and therefore were not picked to represent Scotland at the World Championships.

The resultant controversy led to a review of qualification procedures for major events. To avoid any such issues this time around, Mouat and his team, ranked third in the world, need to make sure they emerge as the winners from the eight teams this week in Dumfries.

"We think whoever wins this week is probably going to be the team that's selected," Mouat told BBC Scotland. "But you never really know with these selection panels, so we'll see.

"If we get to the World Championships, we'll definitely be going for the gold medal to add to the silver and bronze we've already got.

"It would solidify what a great Olympics we had. We were so close to winning that gold medal. The world title has eluded us so far, so it would be an amazing achievement to call ourselves world champions at the end of the season."

While Mouat's rink are the top-ranked team, he is quick to acknowledge the challenge posed by others vying for the Scottish title.

"The field is stacked full of great teams," said the skip. "We've got Ross Whyte, who's also a British Curling funded team, and then James Craik, who's just come off a gold medal at the World University Games.

"We've also got Cameron Bryce, who is playing very well and climbing the rankings. We have four teams in the world top 20 and that's really good for Scottish and British curling. And then we've got Kyle Waddell, the previous winner.

"This competition here is going to be a tough one to win, but it would really put us in a good spot, going into a World Championship, hopefully."