European Curling Championships: Scottish rinks look to right wrongs

Scotland’s men and women will start the European Curling Championships on Saturday looking to right the wrongs of 12 months ago.

In Lohja last November, top-seeded Mowat’s team lost in the final to Germany and took home the silver medal, while Morrison’s team took home the bronze after beating Italy.

Both tracks will go for gold at the same venue in Finland over the next eight days, with both determined to upgrade the color this time around.

“I felt like we settled for the bare minimum last year because we had a great week,” Rebecca Morrison said.

“This year, we’re really excited because we know we can and would love to go in and win it.”

That excitement was echoed by third baseman Grant Hardy, who admitted the Mowat team are “still hurting a bit” after last year.

“We had a really dominant week and failed to make the final, so we would like to rectify that,” he said.

While the Europeans will be the focus for now, the prospect of a Winter Olympics will hang over the event for both circuits.

Both Team Mowatt and Team Morrison will take part in the Milan-Cortina Olympics in February with designs on a podium finish, with the former entering the event as the favorite after claiming silver in 2022.

The Europeans’ format – two-legged matches followed by semi-finals and a final – replicates that of the Olympic Games, while many of their competitors will also be in Finland, making the perfect preparation for what lies ahead.

“It’s kind of the final adjustment in that environment and a real good test of where we were heading into February,” Hardy added.

“We’ve been in a really hot phase and we don’t want to let our opponents see any kind of weakness by slipping up. We want to remind them that we hope to be the team to beat next February.”