GB medal hopes still alive after double win over US

Team GB’s slim Winter Olympics curling medal hopes are still alive after both the men’s and women’s rink edged out the United States in Cortina.

Bruce Mouat’s world champions needed to beat the Americans and hope either Italy or Norway lose their final two matches.

And following Wednesday afternoon’s session, they are part of the way there.

The British side did their bit, sweeping aside the inexperienced US team 9-2 in just six ends, while the Italians and Norwegians were losing to the already-qualified Canada and Switzerland at the same time.

“This is a horrible position to be in, watching other games and hoping results go our way,” Mouat told BBC Sport.

“We’re just going to have to keep our fingers and toes crossed and see what happens.”

Mouat’s rink were under huge pressure, given they came into this as gold-medal favourites, but uncorked some of their best stuff on the big occasion.

They stole in each of the opening two ends, then capitalised on a third final-stone error by young American skip Daniel Casper – this one the most egregious – to snatch another four for a 6-0 lead after three ends.

Great Britain’s women’s team are in a similarly precarious position.

The inexperienced rink – with only Jen Dodds surviving from the 2022 gold-medal winning team – finished sixth in last year’s World Championships and were some way short of their best against the US, with opportunities missed and mistakes made.

It looked for all the world like their chances were gone, trailing 7-6 going into the final end, and without the hammer.

However, Rebecca Morrison executed a sensational double takeout with her final throw and the Americans faltered under pressure, botching their effort to hand the British rink an implausible 8-7 triumph.

The Scottish quartet still need to win their final two games and hope for favours elsewhere if they are to salvage a place in the medal matches.

The next hurdle is a meeting with bottom-of-the-table Japan later on Wednesday (18:05 GMT) before they face second-bottom Italy on Thursday (13:05).