The Team GB men’s curling team suffered more gold medal match heartbreak as they were made to settle for silver at a second successive Winter Olympics. World champions Team Mouat defeated Switzerland in an epic semi-final but in the final, lost 9-6 to Canada on Saturday night at the Cortina Olympic Curling Stadium. Four years after missing out on gold to Sweden in Beijing, Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Hammy McMillan and Bobby Lammie were looking to become the first British Olympic men’s curling squad since 1924 to top the podium but ultimately came up short. 

Team GB needed to score two points in the final end to remain in the match, and required three to win. But they could not pull off a magical comeback and Canada, who were accused of cheating in a scandal earlier at the Milan-Cortina Games, have now won their seventh gold in this event. This is their first men’s gold since 2014. It is a record-extending 14th medal overall while Team GB have amassed seven.

The two teams had been level after seven ends and Great Britain had the hammer but a rousing effort from Canada in the final three ends, including the ninth when they took three, sparked jubilant celebrations at the end.

Dejected skip Mouat said to BBC Sport: “I’m just a bit in shock. We felt we were probably the better team there but yeah… I don’t know what to say.”

A visibly upset Hardie fought back tears as he reacted: “That’s why we wanted to win it – for each other. The pain from four years ago was that much we thought, ‘Let’s go and give it another go.’ We gave ourselves the chance and did so much wrk to try and redeem ourselves and unfortunately, we’ve not got there again.”

Mouat added: “I think that’s the incredible thing we’ll take away from this week, regardless of the result. The amount of people that have come out to support us and message us from back home, the boys and I love our sport.

“We want people to participate in our sport and come and join our sport and if we can take anything away from this week, as well as the silver medal, being able to inspire people to want to participate is an achievement in itself I hope.”