Silver for Team GB as Sweden claim men’s curling title after extra end

Great Britain had to settle for a silver medal after losing their Olympic men’s curling final 5-4 to Sweden in an extra end at the National Aquatics Centre in Beijing.

Forced to salvage an improbable win against the hammer, Bruce Mouat’s attempted take-out missed by inches to give Swedish skip Niklas Edin his first Olympic crown. Mouat’s men were never in front after losing two in the second end, but nevertheless the 27-year-old and his team of Hammy McMillan, Bobby Lammie, Grant Hardie and alternate Ross Whyte could take solace in becoming Britain’s first medallists of the Games.

It was a thoroughly impressive display by Edin, a former soldier in the Swedish army with five world titles to his name, who was under pressure in Beijing to land the one major title that had eluded him.

Sweden took the initiative when Edin took two in the second end, and under his expert stewardship they would never quite relinquish it. The Swedes extended their advantage by stealing one in the third despite a brilliant double take-out by Mouat that have given the glimmer of a greater reward.

Mouat pulled one back in the fourth for 3-2 and after Edin intentionally blanked the sixth and seventh ends to retain the last stone advantage, he made a rare error in the eighth to hand GB a steal and allow them to tie the score at 3-3.

More clever tactics by Mouat in the eighth forced Edin to settle for one, and a pair of superb double take-outs in the ninth – first by Lammie, then Hardie – set up an intentional blank to allow GB to retain the hammer for the final end.

However, forced to take one in the 10th after expert work from Edin, they handed the advantage back to the Swedes for the extra end, and forced Mouat into attempting an improbable effort