"That's what killed us": Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat gutted as third world title hopes end

Edinburgh curling duo Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat saw their hopes of sealing a third consecutive World Mixed Doubles title for Scotland ended by the United States.

The 2021 champions, who were defending the title won by Eve Muirhead and Bobby Lammie last year, suffered an 8-6 defeat in the first game of the knockout stages in South Korea.

The Scots, who finished third in their section, were always up against it after American pair Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin went two up at the opening end. The US went on to reach Saturday's final, where they will face Japan.

“We just started slow unfortunately and that's what killed us,” said Mouat. “We did manage to mount a bit of a comeback but it just wasn't enough, so we're obviously gutted with our overall performance in that game. There's a wee bit we can work on going forward. We didn't have our best week here and had our ups and downs.

Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat were knocked out of the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship by the United States

“We're pretty happy where we are generally, but I just think there's another step we can go up to be world leading at this point. We're not pushing that hard for the top yet, so we're going to have to work on a few things to make sure we get there next year."

Dodds and Mouat won in 2021 in Aberdeen and Eve Muirhead and Bobby Lammie triumphed in Switzerland last year. With Olympic gold medallist Dodds having taken a sabbatical from the team game following her triumph at the Beijing Olympics, returning to the World Mixed Doubles Championships had been her principal goal this season.