Winter Olympics: Bruce Mouat braced for Sweden test after Danes are sent packing

Edinburgh’s Bruce Mouat led Great Britain to a third successive victory as they downed Denmark 8-2 to further impose themselves on the Olympic curling competition.

Team GB jumped into a 4-0 lead after three ends and the Danes, who sealed their Beijing spot at a last chance qualifying event, never really got a look in.

Mouat shot a 94 per cent game in another superb personal performance to make it three British wins from three on the day at the Ice Cube.

“I’m very happy after that,” said the 26-year-old.

Bruce Mouat curls the stone during the round robin session 7 game between Great Britain and Denmark

“We’ve played quite a few games together now and we are in a good spot and we are settled in and playing really well.”

Past the halfway point of the round-robin stage, Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan Jr are sitting pretty in second place, with four wins from five games, their only blip a 9-7 defeat at the hands of the United States on Friday.

Six is the magic number of wins that would seal a semi-final spot, guaranteeing a shot at Britain’s third curling medal and first since current coach David Murdoch skipped silver 2014.

“Out of 10 for the round robin so far, I’d give us an eight,” said Mouat.

“We had a really good start against Italy, we dropped a few points in the first end and we had to fight back and it got us into a really good rhythm.

“We had t o come back and shoot well against the USA, which unfortunately we didn’t really do and that gave them a win on their tally card.

“We have bounced back really well after that and that win against Norway really set us into our way. The last three games have been really solid.

“It’s the Olympic Games, so you’re not expected to go and win every game but you want to win the ones that are really important.

“And the ones that are coming up in the next three or four days are going to be very important. So we are really going to have to focus and play well in those games.”

An unstinting pace is being set by Sweden and their skip Niklas Edin who are five wins from five, all coming by a margin of two points or more, including a 7-4 defeat of Canada.

Oskar Eriksson, Edin’s-v ice skip , was the architect of Mouat’s undoing in the mixed doubles bronze medal match alongside Jennif er Dodds and the two sides have further history.

Sweden beat Team Mouat to World Championship gold last March, before the Scots got revenge to secure the European title in November.

The two teams meet tomorrow .

“I think it will be our biggest game,” said Mouat, whose team face Switzerland today. “The game against the Swedes is always a good one, we obviously play them a lot on tour.

“ They are very experienced when it comes to the Olympics.

“I think it’s nice to play them at the end so we have a level playing field of experience and it should be a really good game that I’m looking forward to playing in.”

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