Eve Muirhead’s hopes of a second Olympic medal were hanging by a thread after her women’s curling team lost 8-4 to hosts China in Beijing.
Muirhead’s only chance of reaching the semi-finals were left resting on Great Britain beating the Russian Olympic Committee in their last match and hoping a number of other results go their way.
The 31-year-old had hoped her team had finally gained momentum with a big win over Japan on Tuesday, but Muirhead missed a clever double take-out attempt to force an extra end with her final stone.
“It’s frustrating because we are playing really well as a team and we’ve had some great performances since winning the Europeans and coming through the qualifiers,” Muirhead said.
“We need to hope a few results go our way but, because we beat Japan and the USA, we need to hope they drop a game.
“We need to come out and concentrate on our performance against Russia and focus on what we can do and then hope the curling Gods are on our side.”
