Great Britain’s hopes of going for gold at Beijing 2022 were denied by Norway with the final stone of a tense semi-final in the curling mixed doubles.
In a repeat of the World Championship final, the British pairing of Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat were unable to produce the same result as Krstin Skaslien’s final stone edged it 6-5.
The British duo had been in the ascendancy for much of the match but momentum swung in the two power plays as the Norwegians moved ahead for the first time at the sixth end.
Afterwards, Mouat blamed himself for the loss. He said: “I think we controlled that, which was the toughest part. I’m really disappointed in my last three ends. That’s going to be the toughest thing to get over. Jen’s played amazingly, I’m disappointed what I’ve done for the team.”
The two teams had already met in the round-robin stage, Norway winning that and ending second in the standings to GB’s third. But it was the British who started the semi-final the stronger as Skaslien struggled to find her range.
On the sixth day of their competition, the world champions went 1-0 ahead at the first end against the hammer, and then 3-1 clear at the third thanks to a great final stone from Dodds.
Norway managed to limit the dominance of the rivals to a disadvantage of just 4-2 before calling their power play.
With the pressure mounting, Dodds and Mouat both produced their first errors of note on the ice, failing to remove their rivals’ stones and enabling Norway to take an easy three points and move ahead for the first time in the match.
There were more errors in Dodds and Mouat’s own power play meaning they picked up just one point to level the scores at 5-5 leaving Norway with the hammer and tellingly the final stone of the match in the eighth and final end.
In a cat-and-mouse finale, Skaslien landed it perfectly for the necessary point to earn a 6-5 win - and a place in Tuesday’s final with her playing partner and husband Magnus Negbrotten.
Afterwards, Dodds, who will battle it out for bronze with Mouat at 6am GMT on Tuesday, said: “We were in control for most of the game.
“That’s the best we’ve played all week which is even harder to take and we gave ourselves a chance in the end. But we have to regroup for tomorrow. There’s still a medal to be won out there. “
