World Men's Curling Championship: Eve Muirhead hopes Bruce Mouat title can save curling rinks
- Published
Watch: Scotland stun Canada to become world champions
Former world champion Eve Muirhead hopes Scotland's "historic" men's title win in Canada can help save the country's curling rinks.
Bruce Mouat's rink beat Brad Gushue's hosts in Saturday's World Men's Curling Championship final to secure the title for the first time.
Muirhead, who won the women's title in 2013 and Olympic gold in 2022, believes it will bring with it a lasting legacy.
"I hope new facilities are looked at," she told BBC Scotland.
"I hope we can save the old facilities. That's probably the main thing we need to happen right now - to save the rinks.
"There were 6,500 people watching the in the arena in Ottawa. That's huge. Why can't we grow curling here like that?"
Gushue's team had reached the final on a high having swept aside Niklas Edin's reigning champions from Sweden 9-1 to reach the semi-finals, where they edged out Yannick Schwaller's Swiss, who had topped the round robin with 11 wins out of 12, by 7-5.
However, Mouat's side, who had finished second in the round robin, were never behind in a final they finally ran away with 9-3 following a display of near perfect percentage curling.
"Wow, it was incredible," Muirhead said. "Those boys knew they had to bring their A+ game - they were playing Canada in Canada - and they did.
"They've had a silver medal back in 2021 and I know how much that world title will have meant to them."
Muirhead believes having full-time teams training every day is paying off.
"It's great to have the national curling academy and it's definitely a huge part of my success and I know it will be a huge part of the boys' lives," she said.
"The field was tough and everyone is catching up with everyone else."
It was Scotland's first men's world title since David Murdoch's rink won in 2009.
"This is a huge win that will probably go down in history and will probably be remembered for ages, if not forever, because Brad won the gold medal back in 2006 at the Olympic Games and he's won the world championship as well," Muirhead added.
"It's great to see we've got the Canadians' number."