GB women stun curling world champions Canada and Muir into big air final

Team GB’s women curlers kickstarted their campaign with a superb first victory of these Winter Olympics, beating medal contenders Canada 7-6.

After surrendering meekly in their opening two matches against China and South Korea, few fancied Rebecca Morrison’s rink to right the wrongs against the world champions.

However, the British team raised their game significantly, with Morrison in particular making the shots that she was missing earlier in the competition, to overcome a Canadian side who looked fragile after their loss to the United States on Friday.

“It just feels absolutely amazing to go out there and get our first win,” skip Sophie Jackson told BBC Sport.

Britain’s men also posted a victory on Saturday, responding immediately to their defeat against Italy by beating the Czech Republic 7-4.

It would have been more comprehensive for Bruce Mouat’s rink had it not been for several outrageous shots from Czech skip Lukas Klima’s box of tricks.

“We were in control but we couldn’t really get away,” Mouat told BBC Sport. “We just had to stick with it and we felt pretty comfortable.”

Like in the women’s round-robin, six wins from the nine matches should be enough to clinch a semi-final place.

British trio Tabby Stoecker, Freya Tarbit and Amelia Coltman missed out on the medals on Saturday, but all finished inside the top 10 in a stacked field.

Having watched compatriot Matt Weston win a historic gold on Friday the three women were unable to replicate that success and a lack of consistency across the four heats proved costly.

Former trapeze artist Stoecker, who won World Cup bronze last season and was perhaps GB’s strongest medal hope in the women’s event, finished highest in fifth with 3:50.48.

All three were making their Games debut while it is the first time Team GB have qualified three women in the Olympic skeleton event.

It was a dominant showing from Austria’s Janine Flock, who produced four slick runs to take gold while Germans Susanne Kreher and Jacqueline Pfeifer took silver and bronze.

Austria have never had a woman win an Olympic skeleton medal and 36-year-old Flock’s gold comes after heartbreak in Sochi, Pyeongchang – where she missed out to Lizzy Yarnold – and Beijing.

In Saturday’s late action, short track speed skater Niall Treacy reached his first Olympic final in the 1500m but was penalised for his part in a crash.

The 25-year-old won his semi-final to progress to the medal race, where a podium finish would have marked Great Britain’s first in the sport since Nicky Gooch’s 500m bronze in 1994.

Treacy, a European silver medallist over 1,000m, led in the early laps but was judged to have made an illegal move that resulted in both him and China’s Sun Long crashing out of the race.

Treacy is the only short track speed skater in the British team for the Milan-Cortina Games and will return to the ice on Monday to compete in the 500m.

Just five days have passed since Kirsty Muir was left bereft after finishing just 0.41 points shy of a bronze medal in the slopestyle, but the freestyle skier looked to have brushed off any lingering disappointment with an assured performance in big air qualifying.

The 21-year-old progressed in fourth position with a combined score of 166.50 from her best two runs, knowing she has plenty still in her locker for Monday’s final.

Canada’s Megan Oldham, who pipped Muir to that bronze medal last Monday, qualified in top spot on 171.75 points, ahead of China’s defending Olympic champion Eileen Gu – competing in big air for the first time since that 2022 triumph – and Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud.

Muir, who has won big air World Cup and X Games medals, told BBC Sport: “I just wanted to get my runs down and I’m super stoked that I did.”