Perthshire curler Eve Muirhead is in with a strong medal shout at the Beijing Winter Olympics after dramatically advancing to the semi-final.
The determined skip from Blair Atholl clinched a last-four spot at the Ice Cube venue following a concluding round-robin win against Russia.
That nudged Team GB’s record to five wins and four defeats and, with results going their way elsewhere, the medal mission remained on.
Muirhead, Vicky Wright, Jen Dodds, Hailey Duff and alternate Mili Smith - the latter from Guildtown - quickly had to curb excitement.
The semi-final match against reigning Olympic champions Sweden slides into action on Friday at 12.05pm (UK time).
“I knew that our first job was to beat Russia,” said Muirhead. “That was our first priority and that’s what I gave everything to.
“It’s very hard to concentrate fully for three hours, however, so I’m not going to lie, I had one eye looking across at the other games.
“I hope I didn’t show that, but you’re always going to keep an eye on things when you know it’s going to get you into the Olympic semi-final spots.”
The Swedes finished above Team GB in the group standings, but Muirhead scored a convincing victory against them earlier in the event - and also twice at this season’s European Championships.
However, Muirhead said: “We’ve beaten them the last three times we’ve played them, but who cares about that?
“We could have beaten them every single time we played them, but if we lose to them on Friday it doesn’t matter, does it?
“We’ll go in with as much focus as every other game. I know the team will do a fantastic job to get us there.
“This team has got a lot of resilience. That’s one thing we’ve shown all season.
“We’ve come from a squad of nine people to a team that has won the Europeans and then qualified for the Olympic Games, to now reach the semi-finals of the Olympics.
“We’ve shown a lot of great character, a lot of grit and determination and I think we fully deserve this spot.”
On a personal level, Muirhead is determined to improve on a fourth-place finish in Korea four years ago and go a step further than in Sochi 2014 when they returned with a bronze medal.
“This is my third semi-final at an Olympic Games, but of course I don’t want it to go the way 2018 went,” said Muirhead.
“That was tough, but I think that as a team, the amount we’ve practised, the amount we’ve trained, the amount we trust each other, the amount we enjoy it, all we can do is go out there and try our best and curl the way we have all week.”
“I do think if we carry that on and bring this momentum we definitely won’t be far away.”
