Team GB tears as they painfully miss out on a medal yet again

Good afternoon and welcome to our live coverage of the Winter Olympics, as Britain’s mixed curling team Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds bid for bronze – and Team GB’s first medal of the Games. 

After dominating the curling round-robin competition for five long days, Team GB faltered when it mattered most just as the Winter Olympics moved into the decisive knockout action.

A catastrophic sixth end finished with Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds losing all five shots and going from drawing 3-3 into an impossible 8-3 deficit against their Swedish opponents. They had made three errors in successive ends before falling to a meek 9-3 defeat.

With that, their chances of the gold they had looked well capable of winning have gone and they must now make do with a bronze-medal match on Tuesday against hosts Italy, who themselves won gold in Beijing four years ago.

Dodds, a previous world champion and part of the women’s team who won gold in Beijing, accepted that they were ultimately beaten by the better team. “We are just both disappointed we didn’t play like we had played all week,” she said. “In an Olympic semi-final, you can’t do that and the Swedes capitalised on our mistakes. We got punished for it. They played great; they capitalised on all of our mistakes.”

They face hosts Italy in this afternoon’s bronze medal match.