• Winter Olympics

Muirhead hails 'dream' curling bronze

Eve Muirhead secured victory with her final stone © Getty Images

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Eve Muirhead's women's curling team secured bronze in Sochi with a 6-5 victory over Switzerland to ensure Great Britain will match their highest ever Winter Olympics medal tally.

It was Britain's first women's Olympic curling medal since Rhona Martin's gold at Salt Lake City in 2002.

Switzerland raced into a 2-0 lead following Vicki Adams' mistake but Muirhead's rink levelled by the halfway stage. GB then took control when Swiss skip Mirjam Ott inadvertently scored one instead of blanking the sixth end, handing GB the hammer.

Muirhead kept up the pressure in the ninth end, with the Swiss taking just one with the hammer to tie the match at 5-5. GB's skip then sealed the win with two nerveless final stones.

With David Murdoch's men's team competing for gold in the final tomorrow, GB are certain to rack up four medals in Sochi - which they have not done since the inaugural Games in Chamonix in 1924.

Muirhead told BBC Sport: "It's a dream come true. This is the medal we've been missing and to win it with four of my best friends feels so special.

"Words can't describe it, it hasn't sunk in. It was a great game, we were chasing in the first half of the match and when we stepped in the second half.

"We've had some tough losses and great wins and many of the games have come down to last stone, last end. To end on a high makes it even better. I couldn't think of what it would have been like to walk away without a medal around my neck.

"We're a young team with a lot of time ahead of us. We're the youngest team here, our average age is 23 and we've got a big future ahead of us."

Vice-skip Anna Sloan said: "It was a great team effort. The girls swept it really well and judged it to perfection."

Her teammate Claire Hamilton said: "The last couple of days has been a mix of emotions but it was important to put the disappointment of the last game behind us because we desperately wanted a medal."

GB's other two medals in Sochi came courtesy of Lizzy Yarnold's gold in the women's skeleton and Jenny Jones' bronze in the snowboard slopestyle.

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