Aitken misses out on Junior title and World qualification

Murrayfield curler Karina Aitken narrowly failed to qualify for next month's World Junior Championships in Korea following an agonising defeat in last night's national junior final at Curl Aberdeen.

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Aitken hammered Stirling’s Lisa Davie 8-3 in the semis but was given little chance in the final against Sophie Jackson after losing 14-5 to the Dumfries skip last Wednesday.

Yesterday was a different story, though, and Aitken led 3-2 before coming from 4-3 down to take the final to an extra end, where Jackson held her nerve to win 5-4.

Meanwhile, Karina’s big sister Gina missed out on a quarter-final spot at the Glynhill International in Glasgow. Back-to-back victories over champion Silvana Tirinzoni and Dane Lene Nielsen kept her hopes alive, but defeats to China’s 2009 world gold medallist Bingyu Wang and Swiss skip Alisha Mathis saw her eliminated.

Gina’s mixed doubles partner Bruce Mouat did reach the last eight at the German Masters in Hamburg following arguably the best win of his senior career when he stunned Oslo’s former world champion Thomas Ulsrud 6-5. Mouat’s run ended with an 8-3 loss to another Norwegian, Steffen Walstad, who went on to beat Perth’s Kyle Smith in yesterday’s final.

Aitken and Mouat play in next week’s World Student Games in Almaty, Kazakhstan.